The firm behind a bid for a gasification plant in north Cumbria will appeal after it was rejected by planners.
North-west Regeneration applied to Cumberland Council to build the energy from waste facility near the village of Rockcliffe, north of Carlisle.
The plans have attracted significant opposition.
The application had been recommended for approval by council officers.
The controversial planning application is for a site on land next to the former Unit D on the Kingmoor Park Rockcliffe Estate.
The plant would heat waste at high temperatures – generally ranging from 1,200°C to 1,500°C – to break it down into a gas named syngas which can be used for electricity generation or refined into other chemicals and fuel.
The proposed gasification plant would have been around 750m from the southern edge of Rockcliffe village and 1km from the northern end of the village of Cargo.
This week, a spokesman from North-west Regeneration said: “This decision was made despite the planning officers’ recommendation to approve the application, 250-page report and 18 months of due diligence, and the appointment of an independent consultant called Ricardo Environmental Consulting Services to review all the documents.
“This decision was made despite the Environmental Health Department having appointed a specialist pyrolysis expert consultant to grant the SWIP environmental permit after 13 months of due diligence.
“The environmental permit fully complies with the Industrial Emissions Directive and UK Environmental Legislation.”
The spokesman said the North-west Regeneration had commissioned significant studies from independent experts to provide reports that included air quality assessment and modelling, human health risk assessment, ecology habitat risk assessment, and carbon quality and need documents.
He added: “These reports have been reviewed by the statutory consultees, including: Cumberland Council Environmental Health, Cumberland Council Historic Environment, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, the Environment Agency, Historic England, Natural England, UK Health Security Agency and the Food Standards Agency.
“After further reviews of the air quality assessments and human health risk assessment Natural England stated that they had no objection to the application and its independent reports.
“All these experts have considered the finest detail of the project and concluded that there is no detrimental impact on human health or the environment.
“The company is awaiting the planning decision notice in full and will then lodge an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”
