Plans for a new gas-fired power plant in Runcorn are set to be approved despite concerns about emissions.

Developer Riverside Estates applied in February to build a 20MW gas-fired power plant on a field near Runcorn Rowing Club’s boathouse on the Weaver Navigation.

Halton Council’s planning committee is set to discuss the proposal at its meeting on November 2 and council officers have recommended giving it the green light.

However, the plans have received several objections including one from local MP Mike Amesbury, who fears the impact of emissions from the plant on air quality in the area.

In his objection, Mr Amesbury said: “It seems to me that this proposal is the wrong type of development in the wrong place.

“There are already significant emissions in the area from the Rocksavage power station and the Energy from Waste plant as well as Inovyn operations.  “I am concerned about the additional air quality impact of this plant alongside significant road and rail infrastructure within close proximity of a large residential area in my constituency (Beechwood).”

But despite Mr Amesbury’s objections, Halton Council’s environmental health officers said the impact on air quality would be “negligible” due in part to the plant’s limited operating hours.

The plant is intended only to provide additional power during peak times in order to bridge the gap between large coal-fired power stations closing and infrastructure to store energy from renewable sources being established.

Although the construction of the plant would cause the loss of some green space, planning officers said the developers had sought to mitigate this and the benefits of the new plant thus outweighed the loss of part of the field.

In their report prepared ahead of next Monday’s planning committee, council officers said: “The proposal would therefore allow for the creation of low carbon energy whilst ensuring that the impacts on the designated Greenspace and Local Wildlife Site are appropriately mitigated as well as the proposal being sympathetic to surrounding land uses.  “The proposal is therefore considered to be acceptable.”