County councillors have voted to reject controversial proposals for a new clinical waste incinerator just metres from a primary school - but the final decision will be made by a planning inspector. Hixon residents applauded the decision made by Staffordshire County Council's planning committee to back refusal of the clinical waste treatment facility.
A report to the committee said the proposed facility at Hixon Industrial Estate would process up to 3,504 tonnes per year of clinical and hazardous waste, such as syringes, dressings, medicines, plastic tubing and anatomical waste. It would require a 15m tall flue stack - three metres above the existing building's roofline.
Dozens of residents attended the meeting at Stafford's County Buildings, many bringing placards. The Oak Room was unable to accommodate all those who attended, so many viewed proceedings from another in the building.
Hixon resident Amelia Garner spoke against the application on behalf of villagers.
She said: "I'm a mother to a child at St Peter's Primary School, whose playing field sits just 80 metres from the site proposed for this clinical waste incinerator. Eighty metres is not a safe distance, it is a direct exposure zone, and this application places 230 children, some as young as two in the nursery, at daily risk. As the school points out many children already live with asthma or other respiratory conditions - even small increases in nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter can have lifelong consequences.
"The applicants claim there is no significant risk, but that phrase admits there is some risk. And when it comes to our children, any risk is too much.
"Prevailing winds would carry emissions directly over our school and our homes. The applicant's modelling predicts a level of arsenic, chromium 6, dioxins and furans, chemicals known to cause cancer and other harm, rising well above background levels.
"Would you send your child or grandchild to a school next to a clinical waste incinerator? This proposal is simply in the wrong place, there is no need for it to be sited so close to a primary school."
MP Sir Gavin Williamson, who attended a protest walk through the village alongside hundreds of residents of all ages last month, was also present. But the decision on whether or not to permit the waste treatment facility will be made by a planning inspector, instead of the committee, because the application has gone to appeal.
Applicant Inwaste Hixon Ltd submitted an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate after Staffordshire County Council failed to make a decision on the application within the statutory period or agreed extended period - known as "non-determination". The application was first submitted to the county council in June 2024.
Borough councillor Brendan McKeown, chair of Hixon Parish Council, told the committee the parish council had considered the application more than a year ago and objected to it. He added: "I'm very pleased that the recommendation before you is to say you would have refused this application had it come here earlier.
"The application is classed as 'sui generis', Latin for 'without comparison of its own kind', which suggests to me and many villagers that this process is untried and untested, so close to a primary school. There are more red herrings in this application than there are in an episode of Death in Paradise.
"This 3,504 tonnes of hazardous waste to be treated each year comes in at 9.6 tonnes a day - conveniently just under the 10 tonnes per day that would be required for it to come under the control and auspices of the Environment Agency. Anatomical waste and clinical waste contains swabs, dressings, syringes other sharps, bits of bodies, identifiable human organs and it has to be collected, stored and transported, handled very carefully throughout its journey.
"If you don't do it properly, you are exposing the area to infection that would be spread by vermin and whatever might come out the top. The only reason this application is going to appeal is because the applicant has never submitted the correct information to officers here to be able to come to a resolution for you to decide as a planning committee."
The applicant would partner with UBH Group, who would provide staff, training and expertise to run the facility, which would be controlled by permit, the committee report said. Agent Dudley Saunders, who spoke in support of the application, told the meeting the proposed facility would bring 20 new jobs to the area.
He added: "The wastes are required by law to be disposed of through high temperature incineration in a highly-controlled and secure manner. The chosen site sits immediately adjacent to existing industrial processes and the site was selected not only for its established industrial context, but also because it presents a unique opportunity to directly export low carbon heat and power to neighbouring facilities, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and supporting the wider decarbonisation of industry.
"The applicant has identified a clear national and regional need for new clinical and hazardous waste treatment capacity driven by several factors. (There is) an existing shortfall in high temperature incineration plants leading to limited competition and rising costs, long-term underinvestment in UK facilities, a growing reliance on exporting material overseas for treatment which is incredibly unsustainable and the demographic reality of an ageing population, generating higher clinical waste arisings.
"Currently, the nearest comparable facility is more than two hours' drive away, meaning the majority of local waste must be transported long distances. Approving this application would therefore provide vital regional treatment capacity, reduce waste miles by treating materials closer to source and recover and reuse energy in the form of low-carbon heat, supplied directly to local industry."