Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

The new buildingat Westbury is now well underway.

A £20m contract was signed in April 2010 for a Mechanical Biological Treatment plant on the Northacre Trading Estate.

Building started in August and the concrete floor, where the incoming waste will be deposited, has been completed, as has the drainage. The next stage is to build the walls and install the cranes which will move the waste within the plant. It should be completed by summer next year.

The plant will take 60,000 tons of household waste and convert it into 20,000 tons of Solid Recyclable Fuel, which will then be shipped to Germany or Holland to be used.

The council has been working closely with Hills Waste, who already take 50,000 tons of waste from Wiltshire to be incinerated in Slough. The contract will be for 25 years, with break points at 5 year intervals in case a closer market for the fuel develops.

The plant was originally planned to provide fuel from waste to go into the Lafarge cement kilns but, following closure of the cement works, the project has been redesigned to produce a slightly lower grade fuel suitable for a waste to energy process.