News Date: Monday 16th July 2012
Local Councillors quiz Enviropower at public meeting
Following a number of ongoing complaints about a noise problem from the Enviropower “waste to energy” facility on Lancing Business Park, Sompting’s Conservative councillors brought local residents together with the managers of Enviropower, Adur environmental health officers and representatives from the local Environment Agency, at a well attended public meeting at Sompting United Reformed Church recently. About 50 local people attended and heard presentations from the officials present about what action had already been taken and what further moves were planned. The meeting was chaired by local MP Tim Loughton who then took a number of questions and addressed a number of challenges for the company and the Environment Agency.
The meeting was organised by local councillors Dave Simmons, Brian Boggis and Carson Albury, following a series of complaints that the new plant had been responsible for significant disturbances caused by noise, from local residents across a wide area. Despite some improvements, many problems still remained and many people were anxious to see what action could be taken to address them.
Enviropower manager Mike Adams, acknowledged that there had been operational problems following the initial installation, caused by the design contractors going into liquidation and leaving the project incomplete. They had had considerable difficulty finding suitable expertise to complete the installation and much of the initial equipment had been poorly specified. However, considerable steps had now been taken to address the problem and significant sums of money had been invested to overcome the issue, including the fitting of fan silencing technology, which it was hoped would go a long way to reducing the impact of the noise and more work was planned. The Environment Agency is also considering a new Noise Management Plan from Enviropower and it was anticipated that this would enable them to monitor the situation to ensure a permanent solution could be achieved.
West Sussex County Councillor David Simmons said “This is a very innovative project which provides considerable benefit to the local community. However, it is important that this innovation is not achieved at a cost to local residents by causing unnecessary inconvenience in their day to day lives.” The Managing Director of Enviropower, Mandy Bridson, assured residents that she would continue to work toward becoming a “good neighbour” to the Community.
