SITA Resource Recovery Centre, Avonmouth

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An area of land approximately 2km north of the centre of Avonmouth, known locally as Merebank was to be the site of a new material recovery facility and batch oxidation system gasification plant, to be built and operated by SITA UK. This plot of land lies within the floodplain of the River Severn and was originally developed as coastal grazing marsh, but has been subjected to continuous industrial development since 1917. In 2006 planning permission was granted for general industrial and warehouse development on the remaining land with the Merebank site being the last available plot.

Parsons Brinckerhoff were contracted to carry out an ecological assessment of the land prior to the development taking place, which included an assessment of both the terrestrial and aquatic invertebrate interest at the site, which contained a network of small rhynes and scrub-land. The rhynes harboured the remnants of a grazing marsh aquatic invertebrate fauna that was formerly widespread across the area, but which had been in steady decline with increasing development. The rhynes were poor examples of the habitat and most exhibited various degrees of pollution and relatively low invertebrate diversity. It was proposed to leave a small section of the land parcel, which remained relatively undeveloped and included rhynes, a pond and some grassland, as part of a vital wildlife corridor within the wider Avonmouth industrial complex.