THE deadline to respond to the Portland waste incinerator consultation has been extended after an error meant that a report on air quality was not published.

As reported, the Environment Agency is holding a consultation regarding the Environmental Permit required to operate the proposed facility. Without such a permit, the plant cannot operate, so the consultation is vital in determining whether or not the plans go ahead.

The Environment Agency (EA) yesterday apologised for the omission after part of an air quality modelling report commissioned by Powerfuel, the company behind the proposal, had not been published on its website.

As a result the consultation deadline has been extended until 5pm on September 22 2021.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "We have been made aware that there was a duplicated document on our Citizen Space page. This means that another document, with a similar title has not been accessible for you to view.

"We have now made sure that all documents sent to us in support of the permit application can be seen on Citizen Space. You will now be able to view this extra document - an addendum to the operator's air quality modelling report.

"If you have already sent us a consultation response and want to send an updated response after reading the newly added document you can of course do that if you wish to.

"We are sorry that we did not make this document available sooner. As a result and so you have enough time to view this additional document we have decided to extend our consultation."

To read our quick guide to the Environment Agency consultation click here