en.Wedoany.com Reported - Lancashire County Council has recently advanced a waste-to-energy facility plan, which was reconsidered due to new objections. Sesona Ltd initially received council approval in 2024 for a facility named the Thornton Energy Recovery Centre on a site in Thornton-Cleveleys, but the matter was brought back to the committee for discussion on technical issues.
The planned facility covers 72,000 square feet and recovers energy through the controlled combustion of non-hazardous residual waste. The applicant stated that the electricity generated by the project could power nearly 20,000 homes and that heat energy could be exported in the form of hot water. The development site, located on Bourne Road, was formerly the site of an ICI chemical plant and has been vacant for 25 years. It now falls within the Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone in the Wyre district.
Lancashire County Council considered the project twice, in April 2024 and July 2025, and decided on conditional approval both times. The council and the applicant signed a Section 106 agreement, which includes a contribution of £12,000 for road safety improvements on Fleetwood Road North and the implementation of off-site biodiversity net gain. Although the final draft of the Section 106 agreement was ready, no decision notice has been issued. Since the 2025 meeting, a new detailed objection was submitted. According to case law, the local planning authority is required to re-examine the application based on relevant material considerations that have arisen after the resolution.
The new objection is primarily based on two matters. First, an appeal decision in September 2025 regarding a similar waste-to-energy proposal at Archers Fields in Basildon, which was refused because the applicant failed to provide conclusive evidence that the heat energy generated by the facility could be utilised or that carbon capture was practically feasible. The objection argues that the Archers Fields ruling indicates applicants must demonstrate that heat output is viable and achievable, not merely theoretically possible. Council officers generally considered that the inspector's conclusions on Archers Fields were based on the specific circumstances of that site. Second, the National Policy Statements EN 1 and EN 3, published in December 2025 and effective from January 2026, which guide decisions on "nationally significant infrastructure projects" in the energy sector, were deemed by officers to carry limited weight in this case.
This application was the most substantial item on the Lancashire County Council's June agenda, occupying the majority of the meeting's discussion time. Reform UK councillor Martyn Sutton expressed scepticism about the proposal and moved to defer consideration to allow for clearer explanations and to clarify doubts. The motion to defer was defeated, after which the substantive motion—officers' recommendation for approval—was put forward and passed by a majority of seven votes.
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