WASTE firm Viridor has stolen a march on its rivals in the race to build an incinerator for rubbish from Plymouth and South Devon.

The company, which already has a landfill contract with Plymouth City Council, is applying for permission to build an incinerator and recycling plant at New England Quarry, south of Lee Mill.

The proposal could leave Plymouth and South Devon with not one but two energy from waste (EfW) plants.

The £180million scheme could include a new junction on the A38 at Lee Mill to take traffic away from the village.

The plant would generate up to 20MW of electricity and, possibly, heat for local businesses and new homes.

Viridor is one of three companies chosen by the South West Devon Waste Partnership to put forward more detailed plans for waste handling.

Plymouth City Council, Devon County Council and Torbay Council have teamed up to commission a waste incinerator and have already been granted private finance initiative funding of £95million towards the scheme, which is expected to be operational by 2014.

The partnership is considering five options from the three firms.

MVV Umwelt and SITA have put forward proposals for sites at Ernesettle and North and South Yards at Devonport. Their schemes have not yet been made public.

Viridor, which owns New England Quarry, today unveiled its own £180million scheme.

The company has begun public consultation on its plans, and hopes to submit a planning application to Devon County Council in November.

Dan Cooke, Viridor external affairs manager, said the company would consider building the incinerator anyway, even if it was not chosen by the partnership.

The Viridor incinerator was designed to be flexible, he said. At a capacity of 275,000 tonnes of waste a year, it was 50,000 tonnes bigger than the plant required by the partnership for domestic waste.

The extra capacity could be used for handling commercial waste, Mr Cooke said. If the partnership rejected the Viridor bid, Mr Cooke was confident that there could be enough commercial demand to make their incinerator viable anyway.

Viridor is talking to the Highways Agency about building a new slip road on the A38 at Lee Mill to keep the estimated 150 extra lorries a day away from village homes.

A new access road would carry traffic to the disused quarry, which has been used by the police and Plymouth University for diver training.

Mr Cooke said Viridor had already presented its ideas to stakeholders and local community groups, and traffic had been their top concern.

When Viridor bought the quarry three or four years ago, it came with planning permission to extend operations. Mr Cooke said Viridor would forego that planning permission and keep the surrounding fields for agriculture.

The incinerator, designed by architect David Butterworth to echo the hills of Dartmoor, would be built next to the quarry. The hemispherical building would stand 45 metres tall, with its twin one-metre wide chimneys another 45 metres on top of that.

The whole structure would rise to a similar height above sea level as the near by Langage power station.

The old quarry itself would be lined and filled with a million cubic metres of rubbish that cannot be burnt or recycled.

Ash from the incinerator would be turned into aggregate to be used in road building.

“Energy from waste is one of the most stringently regulated processes under EU legislation,” Mr Cooke said.

Planning consultant Will Ryan said: “This technology is safe, proven, robust and deliverable.”

The scheme would create 40 new permanent jobs and 200 to 250 jobs during construction.

Viridor will be showing the public its plans at three exhibitions:

Wednesday September 16, 4-8pm, The Westward Inn, Lee Mill.

Tuesday September 22, 3-8pm, The Watermark, Leonards Rd, Ivybridge.

Thursday September 24, 3-8pm, Yealmpton Community and Resource Centre, Yealmpton.