A PLAN to bring the turbine house at Evesham weir back into action would see enough energy produced to power 100 homes.

Work on Beneco Energy Ltd’s project could begin next summer after a delay of three years. The company had to apply for an extension of time on its application for alterations to the building and replacement plant at the building on Mill Bank, after three years expired since the proposals were given the go-ahead.

David Cross from Beneco Energy said that changing policies on renewable energy meant his company’s plans had gone back to the drawing board a number of times – causing the hiatus in the scheme.

“We had not been able to get on with building the project so we have had to ask to renew the application,” he said. “The Government has been messing around with how they see renewable energy working so we have had several ideas and redesigned the scheme several times over the past three years, only for them to decide they wanted to do something different again.”

Evesham Town Council has given its backing to the scheme with Wychavon to make a final decision on whether to allow the extension.

The turbine house originally had two turbines from the 19th century which fell into disuse at about the time of the Second World War. The plan is to take the old ones out and replace them with a single propellor-type turbine. It would produce 300 megawatts and save 330 tonnes of CO2 per year. All electricity created will be fed back into the local grid.