Why Dagenham?

The Thames Gateway Power facility is proposed to be developed on an 8 acre plot on the Sustainable Industries Park at Dagenham Dock. This site has historically been part of the Dagenham Dock and its workings, with rail lines and oil and coal storage being used across the site. This project will see the construction of a building that currently has outline consent on land that is part of the London Sustainable Industries Park with Thames Gateway Power providing the 'green spark' to the wider Sustainable Industries Park. For more information on the Sustainable Industries Park please visit http://www.consultation-online.co.uk/LSIP

As can be seen from the image below the development sits sandwiched between the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the remaining 50 acres of commercial development.

A fundamental principle of sustainability is proximity. This principle seeks to ensure that activities are carried out close to the market they serve and are limited in scale to represent the local community; the principle seeks to reduce vehicle transport and allow convenient access to the development for the workforce.

All London Boroughs produce significant waste streams from the businesses that serve the large population and Barking & Dagenham is no different. Locating a facility in East London stops waste being transferred out of the area for disposal, contributing to the reduction of greenhouses gases from transportation and through renewable energy production. Indeed, 15% of the throughput for the power plant is available within the Sustainable Industries Park development and potential users of the power and heat/steam are also neighbours.

Thames Gateway Power will need employees that reflect the full spectrum of employment with over 50% of the jobs of NVQ Level 2 standard and the average income being £1000 per annum over the average for London. The job roles will include engineers, technicians and operations management staff. A key reason for selecting Dagenham Dock for the development of a power plant is the availability of the workforce and the historical pre-disposition to manufacturing and engineering. Indeed, manufacturing plays a major role in Barking & Dagenham's employment making up 16% of all jobs – a significant contribution and a good deal higher than the National average. Meanwhile, unemployment in Barking & Dagenham is higher than the national average although encouragingly the economic benefit of the Sustainable Industries Park will be significant with many high quality jobs created by the various occupiers.

The Thames Gateway Power facility is clearly a major development which will attract high public interest. To ensure that the development is appropriate to the site chosen, a thorough evaluation of current and emerging planning policy and guidance was undertaken. This review produced two important points;

Planning for Waste Developments

The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham is one part of the East London Waste Authority along with Havering, Redbridge and Newham and between them they are currently preparing a Joint Waste Development Plan for the area to plan for the sustainable management of waste within their authority boundaries. The waste they are responsible for managing includes commercial and industrial waste. In total the East London Waste Authority are expected to manage 1.4 Million tonnes of waste per annum. Based on this production of waste there is now only 6 years left before the current landfill void space is exhausted. The Boroughs have jointly carried out a significant exercise looking at the sites that will be required to replace landfill and allow waste to be managed as a resource to be reused instead of lost. Within the Joint Waste Development Plan document and associated Proposed Submission Map the location chosen for the Thames Gateway Power facility is considered suitable (subject to a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment that is submitted with the planning application) for the development as a gasification plant.

Renewable Energy

On a national level the recent announcement from Gordon Brown that £100bn will be spent on renewable energy underlines the importance of replacing fossil fuels.

As every other region in the UK, London has a renewable energy target. However, London have gone further and created a list to show the mix of technologies that London would expect to generate this renewable energy and this includes gasification. The Thames Gateway Power development will have an installed electricity capacity of 16 Mega Watts (50% which is classified as renewable), and this is equivalent to 14% of the renewable electricity output required from gasification.

London and the Mayor take climate change seriously and have put in place many policies, targets and zones to ensure that carbon emissions are decreased. As part of this emissions reduction programme there is a plan for more decentralised low carbon energy generation with London targeting 25% of its energy to be provided by these types of power plant. The Thames Gateway Power facility is included within this low carbon and decentralised definition and will help London to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, Thames Gateway Power will save in excess of 46,000 tonnes of CO2 each year which is equivalent to more than 20,000 cars off the road.