A senior Aberdeen City Council figure has defended plans for a new waste incinerator in the city – claiming it was the region’s best hope of combating fuel poverty.
Jean Morrison, the convener of Aberdeen City Council’s waste management committee, claimed that if the plans for the Energy from Waste facility in East Tullos were approved, bills could tumble in the next five years.
The new plant, designed to turn household rubbish into energy for 350 homes in Torry and also provide heating and hot water for Tullos Primary School, has met with a large number of objections from nearby communities.
But Cllr Morrison argued that the region could benefit greatly from the proposal.
She said: “By 2022, we will no longer be allowed to use landfill for residual waste, so we had to look at new ways of doing this.
“We could simply package it up and send it elsewhere but that would be counter-productive.
“We believe the best and most innovative way is to build an Energy from Waste plant and turn recycled waste into low-cost energy.
“Torry would be the first area to benefit from the low-cost energy, which is amazing because Torry is one of the most deprived areas in the city and fuel poverty is a particular problem.
“But what is even more exciting are the plans for phases two and three of the project, where the heat network would be expanded across the river and into other parts of the city, potentially piping heating and hot water into thousands of homes and businesses.
“If you look at areas of the city where we already have reduced energy costs due to our gas-fired combined heat and power scheme – Seaton, Tillydrone, Hazlehead and Stockethill – household fuel bills have been cut by more than half.
“The average energy bill for a two-bedroom flat in Seaton is less than £12 a week now, compared with £30 before.”
The project, which is due to go before the local authority’s planning committee in August, would be created and financed by Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray Councils.