North East England
North East England
Our North East England facility received planning consent in December 2022 and is being developed on a brownfield site at Aycliffe Business Park in County Durham.
Subject to the Environment Agency granting Fornax a permit to operate, the facility will treat no more than 10,500 tonnes of waste a year and will generate 6MW of energy, enough to power approximately 700 homes.
This heat offtake can be fed back into running the plant and also transferred to local organisations nearby to help them reduce their carbon footprint and support their Net Zero ambitions.
Around 70% of the waste treated in the plant will be clinical waste from hospitals, labs, and care homes from across the North East and North Yorkshire. The remaining 30% will be classed as hazardous waste.
The clinical waste will be produced in places like hospitals, laboratories and care homes across the North East and North Yorkshire, with the vast majority of hazardous waste, coming from industrial settings with the same area.
This limited capacity of 10,500 tonnes a year has been carefully chosen so that it meets the needs of the NHS and wider care sector in the North East. There are around 8,000 tonnes of clinical waste produced in the region each year.
There is no existing high temperature thermal treatment plant in North East England. As a result, much of the region’s clinical and hazardous waste is dealt with by aging incinerators – often hundreds of miles away in locations like Southampton and Slough.
Click on the links below to read more about the site and our plans:
Sources of waste
Sources of waste
The location, design and size of our North East facility has been carefully planned so it is appropriate to meet the volume of clinical and hazardous waste generated in the region.
This followed a detailed need analysis study looking at waste arisings in the region over a 3-5 year period.
This is important for us and our customers as it will minimise the ‘carbon miles’ the waste has to travel in order to be treated. This facility will enable the NHS in the region to significantly reduce the travel distance compared to its current treatment and disposal operations.
Because of this we anticipate the vast majority of the clinical waste we treat will be arriving from hospitals and other clinical settings such as laboratories and care homes from within the North East region or nearby parts of North Yorkshire.
The hazardous waste treated at the facility will mainly be solid waste with a very small amount of liquids. It will also be sourced from as close to the facility as possible from waste management companies collecting within the North East region.
The facility will not accept or treat household waste.
Generating renewable heat
Once operational, our North East facility will be able to generate 6MW of heat.
This can be fed back into the district heating system to provide renewable energy to any organisation within approximately one mile of the site that wishes to use this energy source to heat their premises.
Planning and permissions
Planning permission for our North East site was granted by The Planning Inspectorate in December 2022. Its Appeal Decision document sets out the Planning Inspector’s decision in detail.
This considers effects on air quality and human health in detail and concludes “the appeal scheme would not materially harm human health and that it would not have an unacceptable environmental impact.”
You can read more about the Appeal Decision in our FAQs.
An application for an Environmental Permit was made to the Environment Agency (EA) in spring 2025, and we are currently awaiting a decision from the EA.
If a permit is granted, it will contain detailed conditions that we must demonstrate the site complies with during a commissioning phase.
The detail for this will be set out in a written commissioning plan, including timelines for completion. The commissioning plan will include the expected emissions to the environment during the different stages of commissioning, along with the expected durations of commissioning activities. It will also include the actions to be taken to protect the environment and report to the EA if actual emissions exceed the emission limits.
Planning and permissions
The plan will need to be approved by the Environment Agency before commissioning can begin. The commissioning plan will require many tests to be undertaken. This includes:
- proving that all elements of the plant are functioning correctly;
- establishing optimum operating conditions for each individual piece of plant;
- proving that the plant meets health and safety requirements;
- demonstrating that the performance of the plant meets the relevant requirements of the Environmental Permit;
- establishing documented operating procedures for the plant;
- training nominated operational personnel to an appropriate standard of competency in the operation of the plant under all conditions i.e. start-up, normal operation, shutdown and emergency situations;
- testing the facility with waste to demonstrate that all systems, including the incinerator, air and flue gas treatment systems, residue conveyors, water/steam systems, measuring systems and control and monitoring systems are working correctly;
- controlled start up and shutdowns;
- ensuring combustion at 850oC for a minimum of 2 seconds in the primary combustion chamber; and
- ensuring the continuous emissions monitoring systems are independently calibrated and fully operational.
Only when the plant has undertaken a successful commissioning period, will it become fully operational.
Fornax would then carry out continuous ongoing monitoring and the Environment Agency will carry out ongoing regulation in the form of data and reporting reviews, inspections and audits.
Community engagement
Summer 2025 marks the start of the detailed phase of our community engagement programme for our North East facility.
We will be engaging with locally elected representatives, community groups, neighbouring businesses and organisations on an ongoing basis as we complete the site build and potentially move through to commissioning and operational phases.
We are also eager to collaborate with local schools, colleges, and universities to develop graduate and apprenticeship schemes and educational programmes. If you represent a local school, college or university and would like to know more, contact us using info@fornax.co.uk.
We are committed to being a good neighbour and will work with local communities at all our facilities to open dialogue and build a trusting, two-way relationship.
Anyone who wants to sign up to receive more information directly about the plans for the site and about Fornax can sign up to join our mailing list using the link at the bottom of this page.
Our location
The site, which is on the south west edge of Aycliffe Business Park to the south of Heighington Lane, has excellent transport links to the nearby A1(M) motorway providing good connectivity and access to the region’s major road network.
It is largely screened from the roadway and local communities by extensive mature trees which surround the site, ensuring that visual impact is minimal. The site is just over two hectares in size with a maximum building height of 14m. The stack is 30m in height.
Traffic will access and leave the site via an agreed route through Aycliffe Business Park and will not travel past any residential properties in the area unless the vehicle is specifically collecting waste from that location.
Aycliffe Business Park is the largest single employment area in County Durham. It is home to 500 companies employing 10,000 people across 400 hectares. It is home to a mix of industries ranging from chemicals processing, waste management and engineering as well as service SMEs and leisure operators.
The nearest residential areas are in School Aycliffe, approximately 840 metres to the north west and Heighington, approximately 1 kilometre to the west.
You can read more about the state-of-the-art technology we will be utilising and the measures we will be putting in place to minimise and monitor environmental impacts, in the ‘technology’ and ‘environment’ sections of the website.
Employment and sub-contracting opportunities
Employment and sub-contracting opportunities
We are now starting the process of creating up to 40 permanent, quality, skilled roles for the North East plant.
In addition to these permanent positions, we are engaging with local contractors and suppliers who can support Fornax as we move towards commissioning and becoming operational.
Around 120 jobs were supported during the two-year construction programme.To find out more about any of these opportunities, email info@fornax.co.uk.