Consultation launched on draft decision to approve Abermule bulking facility application

A public consultation has been launched on a draft decision to approve an application for an environmental permit to operate a bulking facility for non-hazardous waste at Abermule.

Powys County Council re-applied to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for an environmental permit in June 2022 after a previous application was refused by the environmental regulator in March 2022.

If the permit is granted, the site will be able to accept and process up to 22,500 tonnes of non-hazardous waste per annum. A maximum of 425 tonnes would be kept on site at any one time.

The only proposed treatment activity is the bulking up of materials. Materials received on site will be segregated before arrival and therefore will not require any manual sorting or separation. Bulking up entails gathering smaller quantities of a material into a larger quantity which is easier and more efficient to transport and process.

NRW has completed a detailed technical assessment and has reached a draft decision to issue the permit.

Before making a final decision, NRW is consulting on the draft decision and the draft permit. This is to explain the decision to the public and other interested parties and to give them the opportunity to make relevant comments on the draft decision.

Ann Weedy, NRW Operations Manager for Mid Wales said:

“We have undertaken a full technical assessment of the application and supporting documents and taken into account the comments received and held from the previous consultation.

“We believe that we have considered all the relevant issues and reached a reasonable conclusion, but our final decision could be affected by any information that is relevant to the issues we have to consider.”

Unless information is received that leads NRW to alter the conditions in the draft permit, or to reject the application altogether, the permit will be issued in its current form.

The public consultation will start on Friday 2 June 2023 and run for a period of four

weeks, closing on Friday 30 June 2023. A final decision will be made shortly after feedback to the consultation has been fully considered.

People can respond to the consultation here.