AFTER the weekend’s news that there will be no Titan Prison on the giant Omega development site at Warrington, it now also seems highly unlikely that an incinerator will be built there either.
I have had sight of documents – obtained through an application under the Freedom of Information Act – which suggest there is no money available to provide the necessary road infrastructure.
Last week Warrington-Worldwide reported exclusively that the borough council’s strategic director for environment and regeneration, Andy Farrall had said there was no plan for an incinerator at Gemini.
He dismissed media reports as “speculation” when he addressed a meeting of Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council.
But he also said the council would be looking for suitable locations for an incinerator – and, although the council still wanted Omega to be a high quality international business centre, it was still possible the incinerator could go there..
The documents I have seen – obtained by local campaigner John Mulhall – show that while there may never have been any formal plan for an incinerator at Omega, there was undoubtedly a willingness on the part of the borough council to locate one there.
In fact, the council indicated it would be happy to place its new “waste management facilities” at Omega if the North West Development Agency would finance the road infrastructure necessary to open up the site.
Subsequently, the documents reveal, the Agency indicated it was not able to do this – and so the Omega “plan” died.
Unless money for the roads can be found elsewhere – which seems unlikely – it seems certain the idea cannot be resurrected.
The borough’s waste management strategy, which has been accepted by the government, involves an energy-from-waste facility, but last week Mr Farrall last week said it would be of modest size and would handle waste from Warrington only – not from other areas.
Although he said there were a number of possible sites in the borough, he gave no indication of where they were.
However, one possibility must be the Arpley Landfill site.
Pictured: an artist’s impression of the original vision for Omega
