A controversial South London incinerator that burns rubbish broke emissions rules six times over two months. The Beddington incinerator is used by Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Kingston councils that form the South London Waste Partnership.

The SLWP has written to Viridor, which runs the facility, about the "relatively high" number of breaches. It said the company will be fined and to provide a plan of how the plant will be brought back to 100 per cent compliance.

Known as an energy recovery facility (ERF) processes the waste of around one million people in South London. The general waste is burnt rather than being sent to landfill and energy is created in the process.

Andrea Keys from the SLWP said: "During May and June 2022, there were a total of six exceedances of te emissions limits at the Beddington ERF, five of which were breaches of the Environment Agency (EA) permit. This is disappointing as the facility had previously gone 12 months without a single breach of the permit.

"We have written to Viridor to make it clear that contractual penalties will be applied for each of the breaches and we have formally requested a plan from Viridor that sets out what they are going to do to ensure environmental performance is improved."

Ms Keys said many of the breaches were caused by pressurised gas bottles going through the facility. She added: "The SLWP boroughs expect 100 per cent compliance with the EA permit 100 per cent of the time, and will use all of the mechanisms available to us in our contract with Viridor to ensure those high standards are met."

The waste facility is monitored and regulated by the Environment Agency which has set strict emissions limits it must stick to. Tests are done every 10 seconds and used to calculate daily averages.

A spokesperson for Viridor said: "The facility holds an environmental permit, issued by the Environment Agency as the UK's environmental regulator, this stipulates the safe operating conditions to ensure the facility does not cause harm to human health or the environment.

"Due to the changeable nature of the incoming waste delivered to the ERF, on rare occasion the operational conditions temporarily exceed the permitted emissions limits for a number of seconds before returning to operate far below its permitted conditions.