An Armagh-based environmental engineering company have responded to public concerns surrounding plans for £9million investment in a new heat to power plant, stating clearly that they “are keen to be upfront”.
AIC Group – based on the Milltown Road near Benburb – began life approximately seven years ago with the support of Invest NI. Since then, the company say they have “rapidly expanded” and increased their operations and staff force to boot.
As part of their continued growth, the company have engaged in a public consultation to discuss plans – which first entered into in-house discussion some years ago – to develop a combined heat to power thermal treatment centre at the rear of their existing site.
However, in notifying neighbours of the public consultation several concerns came to light… all of which AIC Group acknowledge as being “perfectly valid”.
Residents’ primary concerns surround the emissions produced by the facility – and if these will be pollutant – air pollution by the way of possible odour produced by waste combustion, visual impact through the accumulation of waste on site and the type of waste to be handled on site… particularly surrounding the feeding of medical waste from hospitals.
Speaking to these concerns, AIC Group Technical Director, Conor Donnelly said: “There’s a variety of waste that needs treated through thermal treatment and that could be paints, oils or even oily rags.”
A document provided by AIC Group at the public consultation explained: “Intended feedstocks would consist of a split of categorisation. 85-90% of waste intake would be categorised and non-hazardous but recommended for thermal treatment and energy recovery due to their suitability for recycling and 10-15% categorised as hazardous for required thermal treatment waste to energy disposal.
“Examples of these materials within both the non-hazardous and hazardous categories include wastes such as flammable liquids, solvents, oils, rags, corrosives, oxidizers and paints, PPE, veterinary or medical dressings as well as treated woods or timbers with the availability to safely destroy controlled contraband when applicable.”
During interview Conor also added that there are currently “no contracts, arrangements or agreements in place” for any waste or “non-waste feedstock” for the facility.
In terms of carbon footprint, Conor claims there will be a reduction in Co2. Adding: “The proposed development would see CO2 reductions from the current method of disposal for the intended waste types due to the fact that they currently must all be exported to the UK mainland or beyond for treatment.”
“Everything we would intend to do would be monitored 24/7 by third party equipment and legally it has to be third party. You can’t access the data or change it. It is intense and it’s monitored by Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).”
Conor also explained that any breach of the limits set by the NIEA permit would see the system shut itself down and the firm would then be answerable to NIEA on the breach.
In regards to potential smell, Conor added: “There simply can’t be a smell during operations or we would be shut down. It’s as simple as that. Northern Ireland is extremely stringent in line with the equivalent UK legislation. A robust operational plan would be put in place to ensure compliance with legislation but more importantly to
ensure a zero tolerance approach to any negative effect to the local area or residents.”
And in terms of visible waste, Conor went on to discuss the design of the scheme, which he says would be built in such a way as to ensure unsightly waste is not visible.
“The building is self-contained,” said Conor. “There’s no unloading that takes place outside and no loading that takes place outside. Everything goes on inside the building. Even things like oily rags for example, they’re all in bins, they are unloaded in the shed, emptied into the machine, the empty bin is steam sterilised put into another lorry and taken away.
“The NIEA also require you to have a bond in place for the value of waste that you have on site, so we will only ever have maybe about 20 to 24 tonnes at any one time.”
Conor was also keen to explain that the project present a multi-million pound investment in the local area and would provide a significant jobs boost, if approved.
Artist impression image of the proposed facility
Of the job creation, he explained: “We would need in the region of 16 people. That’s full-time. We employ 24 to 26 at the minute and then we would have to bring on six more in the near future, they would be kept on and then four to six on top of that would be needed to facilitate the facility fabrication which would all then be sustained and then 13 to 16, roughly, to help with general service, maintenance, house-keeping, admin and management.”
AIC Group say they plan to manufacture 95% of the facility in-house, buying only the remaining 5% of components needed from outside companies which is when increased manpower would prove crucial.
He also explained that the purpose of installing the new facility is to “maximise efficiency” creating combined heat and power from the “organic rankin cycle process” utilising the medium of thermal oil, in which the electric and heat generated would be utilised by the manufacturing arm of the company with any additional being export to the grid through the existing infrastructure if approved by NIE Networks.
Heading into the public consultation which was scheduled for Armagh City Hotel on December 22, a resident also expressed concerns that plans for the development had not been uploaded to the NI Planning Portal and would not be made available until that date.
To this, Lorcan McGillan, Operations Director explained: “No planning application has been submitted at this time. The rationale for this approach is to use the public event as the official launch of the consultation period, where people can view the proposals with the project team on hand to provide immediate explanations, talk through the drawings, and answer initial questions in person.
“We were hoping to obtain feedback from different sectors of the community as to any questions or concerns that they might have in order to answer these during the planning process should the application be submitted.”
At the public consultation itself – which Armagh I attended – members of AIC Group were present to discuss the proposed development with the public and information booklets were provided to a all present.
Several members of the public seemed to have been open-minded about the proposals and appreciated the time taken by AIC team members to explain the concept.
One man – who had a background in mushroom farming – spoke in ardent support of the plant, saying “Northern Ireland is well behind in waste management. It’s about time we had something like this. It’s a great thing for the area and I’m pleased to see it.”
Others said they remained “on the fence” and felt they had more independent research to conduct before deciding where they stood.
There were those who remained sceptical, despite engagement. One man said he was “very concerned” about the increased volume of traffic that the facility may attract, adding that the Milltown road is “already narrow and in poor condition”. He then added to this, his concern that both property and land in the area may be devalued as a result of the development.
These points were also raised by Sinn Féin MLA, Colm Gildernew who additionally shared his scepticism of the NIEA’s ability to control air emissions.
In response to the views of Mr Gildernew, Conor Donnelly commented that “ A traffic assessment has been completed and should we progress to application stage he is in full support of AIC Group improving the road conditions to ensure no adverse impact on residents.”
Conor also commented: “We are aware of waste sites within the wider local area that have been in the spotlight recently as a result of nuisance caused to residents, I’m keen to convey the fact that the facilities in question handle food waste in large quantities which is not the case here.”
Conor went on to discuss the fact that the “designated department within NIEA that would be responsible for regulation of the proposed development are separate to those who are responsible for regulation of the current nuisance causing facilities”.
He also explained that ABC Council would also “have a hand in regulation” of the proposed facility, therefore, he says,
“ensuring comprehensive regulation across the proposed activities”.
A dedicated webpage was launched on December 22, 2025 with details of the proposal which will remain live until January 22, 2026.
Lorcan McGillan stated that following this date all questions received regarding the proposed development would be addressed in a single document and a second public meeting is due to be scheduled in February 2026 to further review and discuss the points raised.
Lorcan was keen to point out that community inclusion is at the heart of proposal and wanted to assure the public that no application will be lodged prior to further public consultation being completed by the company.
