Controversial Coatbridge pyrolysis waste plant green-lit after ruling Judges have cleared the way for a controversial waste management plant to go ahead despite opposition from local councillors and residents. North Lanarkshire Council had rejected the advice of their own planning officials and refused to allow Shore Energy Ltd to modernise a former landfill site near the A8 Edinburgh to Glasgow road by Coatbridge. The local authority said there would be an increase in traffic bringing in waste from other areas as North Lanarkshire did not need such another processing plant as planning permission had already been granted for two other sites. They said: "It has not been adequately demonstrated that the proposed waste management facility would not be detrimental to human health." The Council's decision was good news for 6000 local objectors and campaigners Monklands Residents Against Pyrolysis Plant who won backing from MSP Elaine Smith and Tom Clarke MP. They expressed concerns about health risks, particularly for children and nursing mothers. Shore Energy then took their proposal for the plant, which would deal with up to 160,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste, to Scottish Ministers who appointed reporters to investigate the issue. The result was that Shore Energy's appeal was largely successful, although there were a number of conditions attached to the planning consent. The local authority took their arguments against the plant to the Court of Session in Edinburgh but judge Lord Stewart refused to overturn the decision of the Scottish Ministers. On Thursday, appeal judges Lord Mackay of Drumadoon, sitting with Lady Smith and Lord McEwan, backed Lord Stewart's decision and, again, ruled against North Lanarkshire Council. But they added a caution that planning permission alone was not enough to allow Shore Energy to put their proposals into operation. The planned waste management plant will still need to satisfy industry regulators and obtain permits. Shore Energy say that waste sent to the 3.6 hectare site at the village of Carnbroe will first be sorted to recover material suitable for recycling. What cannot be used again would be used as fuel in a process involving pyrolysis, a high temperate heat treatment of organic material, to generate power, feeding electricity into the national grid. The judges at the Court of Session heard arguments based on European directives and the Holyrood Government's Zero Waste Policy, a commitment to ensure that by 2025 only 5% of refuse will go to landfill. Other arguments related to the way a new plant would be part of a national network of waste management sites and claims that the decision by the reporters appointed by the Scottish Ministers was flawed. But, in the judges' written ruling, Lady Smith said: "This court can only be concerned with the legality of the reporters' decision, not with the merits of the decision to grant planning permission." She concluded: "The Council had not demonstrated that the reporters' decision lacked the requisite validity."