Plastic recycling centre plans narrowly approved

Plans for a new plastics recycling plant in Worksop have narrowly been approved, despite more than 1,200 residents signing a petition against it.

Envale UK tabled plans for the plant, with an energy recovery facility, on an old recycling site off Shireoaks Road.

Nottinghamshire County Council's planning committee gave the plans the go-ahead on Tuesday, with six members in favour of the scheme and five against.

The brownfield site, located at the western edge of the town, was historically used for the manufacturing of coal products and as a brickworks.

In 2006, permission was granted for a waste transfer and recycling facility on site, but the facility did not materialise. However, planning permission for the scheme remains in force.

The operator of the former facility, NRL, was subject to environmental enforcement action in 2013 requiring the removal of waste, but four serious fires took place within 12 months, and NRL collapsed into administration in early 2014.

Envale said the new plant would prevent 24,369 tonnes each year of non-recyclable residual waste from going to landfill and generate up to 10 MW of heat and 2.5 MW of electricity – enough to power more than 650 homes every year.

While the scheme has avoided objections from most statutory consultees, Bassetlaw District Council planning committee objected against it in 2024, and the original consultation received more than 900 objections, with residents' concerns including air quality, noise and traffic.

Rhodesia Parish Council also objected, with a petition signed by more than 1,200 residents.

Speaking on behalf of the parish council, Lesley Deamer told the committee: "Over the past 20 years, this area has undergone significant transformation.

"Homes have been built, businesses have invested and communities have grown.

"What was once regarded as an industrial area is now a place where people work, live, raise families and enjoy the surrounding countryside – this progress matters and it must not be put at risk by an inappropriate development."

Tom Bagley, speaking on behalf of Envale, told the committee the waste local plan identifies a "significant shortfall is residual waste treatment capacity" and that the plan notes landfill capacity is "effectively exhausted".

He said: "Rather than burning or burying this hard-to-recycle plastics, this process provides a circular route back into the manufacturing of new materials."

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