Beddington Energy Recovery Facility Community Liaison Group Meeting Minutes

Beddington Energy Recovery Facility Community Liaison Group meeting minutes Thursday 23rd January 2020 18:00 Attendees: Dennis Philpott – Beddington North Neighbourhood Forum Sandy Goodwin – Beddington North Neighbourhood Forum Janet Emberson – Friends of Beddington Park Cllr Tim Foster – London Borough of Sutton Davide Kingstone – London Borough of Sutton John Haynes – South London Waste Partnership Mike Stafford – Viridor, Chair Dave Carlton – Viridor Brett McGuin – Viridor Sarah Ling – Viridor Andrew Turner – Madano, supporting Viridor Item Action 1.0 Introduction and Apologies 1.1 Mike Stafford welcomed members to the meeting and confirmed that there were 1.2 a number of apologies shared ahead of the meeting: • Elliot Colburn MP (Carshalton and Wallington) • Mandar Puranik (London Borough of Sutton) • Rosemary Ricketts (Environment Agency) • Louise McGoochan (Environment Agency) • Warrick Jopling (Eneteq on behalf Sutton Decentralised Energy Network) • Adrian Frost (Viridor) Andrew Turner asked if all members present had received a copy of the minutes of the last meeting. All members confirmed that they had received copies. Hard copies were also available at the meeting. It was agreed that the minutes were AT representative and signed off. Andrew took an action to upload a copy to the Viridor website. 2.0 Operations report 2.1 Eneteq update In the absence of a member from the Eneteq team, Andrew Turner issued an update on the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network project. Andrew confirmed that testing and commissioning of the district heating pipeline network was due to begin at the end of January. This would start with cleaning the pipework, and then water would be circulated in the pipeline between the Viridor site and the New Mill Quarter. The system would then be brought up to operating temperature with heat from the Landfill Gas engines during March. Daniel Doris has now left Opportunity Sutton, however any community queries can be addressed to project manager - [email protected] 2.2 Landfill update In the absence of Adrian Frost, Andrew offered a short update of the work completed at the Farmlands since the last meeting. Andrew noted that a full programme review took place on the 16th December and activities would be re- baselined to look ahead to 2020, this had been agreed with the CAMC. Restoration and capping work was progressing well, with materials in the clay stockpile towards the south of the site being used to cap the landfill site. The landfill site was utilised by Viridor during periods of ERF downtime in October and November. Viridor had submitted an application with the Environment Agency to start importing inert soils to complete the restoration levels as approved in the planning application. Final designs for the wet grassland habitats were submitted to the Conservation Science Group on 6th December, with the inclusion of comments by the CSG these were approved by the CAMC in December 2019. Andrew updated the CLG that no further activity on the phase one, south of pylons, wet grassland had occurred since the last meeting. However, the Phase 2 (north of pylons) location had continued to be excavated and the ‘bulk dig’ was now bordering the ERF construction village (this was visible from the northern most bird hide on the permissive footpath). The clay stockpile had been removed from above the southern wet grassland area (Phase 3) ahead of further work taking place in the New Year (this would have previously been visible from Beddington Cricket Club). There was a discussion around the acidic grassland habitat due to be created on the Farmlands. Andrew updated the group that Viridor was liaising with the laboratory conducting trials into the deliverability of acidic grassland at the Beddington Farmlands. Viridor expected a technical report to explain the details of the testing programme, however initial findings were more positive than initially expected. There was a potential to use two methods to acidify the soils through impregnating the soil or spraying a suitable substance on the surface and ploughing this into the soil. Andrew confirmed that there had been mowing to the southern meadowland since the last CLG meeting, and this area had been seeded, to increase species diversity in accordance with the Restoration Management Plan. Viridor had appointed a consultant to develop a five-year tree planting and management contract for the tree planting requirements included in the Restoration Management Plan along with the SDEN tree planting requirement along the permissive footpath. This was presented to the CSG in December, following comments from the CSG – the CAMC approved these works in December and the work was due to commence in the spring. This would start with a survey of the trees across the Farmlands and their health. The intention was to appoint an overall management scheme and winter works schedule ready for next year that had been reviewed and agreed, in principle by the CSG but required modifications to deal with winter works, the timing and intensity of management. Subject to the CSG comments, the CAMC were comfortable with the winter works schedule and tree planting contract being placed. The winter working programme was due to commence the week of the CLG following a period of exceptionally wet weather preventing work to the site. Andrew noted that investigations were underway as to if the construction village for the ERF could be relocated to a smaller part of the site to enable the wet grassland activity to continue in the spring of 2020. There was a discussion around the installation of benches in the bird hides on the permissive footpath. It was noted that this activity had been due to take place for a number of weeks. Andrew confirmed that the benches were at the Beddington site and the team were scheduling this into their work programme. It was noted that Viridor had been invited to the upcoming Housing, Economy and Business Committee at the London Borough of Sutton to update on the progress to the restoration work. Sandy Goodwin asked a question about the Viridor team responsible for the restoration work on the Farmlands. Sandy also requested a member of the AT/AF landfill to attend the next meeting to update to CLG in person and to answer questions from the CLG about the Farmlands project. 2.3 ERF update Sarah Ling introduced the CLG to the information panels now fitted to the walls of the Visitor Centre at the ERF. It was noted that two groups of officers from the South London Waste Partnership had visited the ERF in recent weeks. Andrew confirmed that the Member of Parliament for Beddington, Elliot Colburn, was due to visit the facility to learn more about the ERF and the South London Waste Partnership. Brett confirmed that the final construction work activities were underway across the facility including the installation of the lifts in the visitor centre and facility. Once the lifts were fitted in the coming weeks, the members of the CLG would SL be invited for a visit of the ERF. Dave Carlton noted that the final cladding works to repair cladding that had been damaged during the construction phase were due to commence in the coming weeks. Dave confirmed that the cladding to replace damaged panels was now onsite. Brett updated the CLG that there would be a maintenance outage in April with a period when the ERF will not be operating. This was a regular occurrence throughout the life of the ERF to ensure the facility was maintained to provide a reliable service to the South London Waste Partnership. The outage would be phased to ensure that one of the two lines will support the South London Waste Partnership and there would only be a few days when there would be no operations at the ERF. Now that the Beddington landfill had closed, at times there may be the requirement for material to be sent out to contingency facilities across the region. Mike confirmed that the ERF waste bunker had capacity to hold about one week’s deliveries from the South London Waste Partnership. Dave Carlton confirmed that the outage period would last for around four weeks and would be used to complete any final construction activities and will use the ERF construction village. During this period members of the community may notice a limited steam plume or steam venting from the ERF as it was turned off and back on-again following maintenance works. The CLG were asked if anyone in the community had been disturbed by the ERF. It was confirmed that no-one had received any complaints through their community network. Andrew confirmed that members could email [email protected] at any time to contact the site team, or call Viridor’s 24 hour contact line 0800 975 3029. Brett updated the group on a variation to the regularity of averaging carbon monoxide monitoring at the facility. Brett confirmed that as part of a wider nationwide reivew of ERFs, that builds upon increased levels of knowledge of operating ERFs in the UK, the Environment Agency reccomended that the period over which carbon monoxide monitoring was averaged at the Beddington ERF had been increased from every 30 minutes to every 10 minutes. This will ensure a greater level of transparency and rigour in the monitoring of the Beddington ERF emissions and will bring the Beddington ERF in-line with industry standard monitoring periods. Brett continued to note that the variation to the averaging of monitoring for carbon monoxide (from 30-minute averages to 10-minute averages) for the Beddington ERF will ensure that the flue gas carbon monoxide content is monitored even more regulary adding additional scrutiny to the environmental performance of the ERF.

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