BALI Chairman Newsletter - September 2009

1. East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has been working since 2006 on its Waste and Minerals Development Framework (WMDF) which will decide how waste is handled in the County until 2026, replacing the Waste Local Plan. BALI has made submissions in the consultations at each stage of the process, this work having been carried out by the Chairman in order to conserve BALI's funds;
2. BALI keeps in close touch with the Waste team at ESCC and in March this year learnt that Ashdown was likely be identified as a 'Strategic Location' for landfill in the Council's Preferred Strategy for Waste, as part of the WMDF. Such a move by ESCC was considered beyond the scope of BALI members to respond to and it decided to re-engage its planning lawyers, DMH Stallard, to:
   
   1. Review our case, looking at all the past documents, correspondence and other data concerning Ashdown, particularly the huge number of documents involved in preparing the Waste Local Plan and the case against an Ashdown landfill by our previous consultant at the Public Inquiry,
   2. Prepare a Strategy for the Objections to Landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. (See Appendix 1).This report was given to BALI in June and our Consultant (Geoff Smith) came to Bexhill to discuss it with us and advise us as to the next steps to take,
3. The main threads of BALI's argument as to why the identification of Ashdown as a landfill site 'this time round' is unsound are that:
   
   1. 'Circumstances have changed' since the Waste Local Plan was adopted in February 2006, notably in national and EU policy regarding landfill, also locally in the increased adverse effect on local amenities, particularly the development of the new Bexhill High School less than half a mile away.
   2. 'An Ashdown landfill could not be delivered in the time-frame required'. Landfill in East Sussex is required in the short and medium term since all landfill sites have already or are shortly closing.(In the longer term less and less landfill will be required.) Ashdown is unlikely to be deliverable for landfill even in the medium term for many reasons. In particular, suitable transport access is unlikely to be available, depending as it does on 3 roads, none of which are yet built and 2 of which are not yet even at the planning stage,
   3. Because Ashdown will not be deliverable in the time-frame required, our Consultant will insist that other sites particularly those suggested for landfill at early stages of the Waste Local Plan, be brought (back) into consideration. We will insist that ESCC hold an objective, transparent, site-selection process,
4. Of course, all other arguments developed by BALI over the years: environmental, effect on local residents, on local amenities - and particularly on the treasured Highwoods - will continue to play a part in our case.
5. Geoff Smith recommended in his report that we instruct him to proceed to further steps as follows and we have instructed him accordingly:
   
   1. To prepare an 'evidence base' largely focusing on the change of circumstances since the Waste Local Plan Inquiry,
   2. To make submissions on the Preferred Strategy of the WMDF when published for consultation in October,
   3. This latter task represents our best chance of getting out of the new Waste Framework, and if successful, we can all relax. If we do not succeed in this, Ashdown will almost certainly be included in the WMDF and there will likely be a Planning Application to use Ashdown for landfill in the not-so-distant (2012?) future.
6. The cost of this legal work has been, of course, substantial. However, we have every confidence in our Consultant, Geoff Smith, who was the man who succeeded in removing the proposed Mountfield Incinerator from the Waste Local Plan. Thanks to our hard-working fundraising team and the generosity of our supporters, we have built up a substantial war-chest of funds. However the chest is not bottomless and we may need to raise further funds if we do not succeed in our present attempt to remove Ashdown Brickworks from the WMDF.
7. We are not actively fundraising or publicising our cause at the present time. We are convinced that when the WMDF Preferred Strategy is published in October the threat of a new landfill in Bexhill will become clear. At this point we will raise a high-profile publicity campaign and resume our fundraising on the back of it.
8. BALI continues to meet with Ibstock on a regular basis, the latest meeting taking place on 30th June 2009. The meetings are amicable and informative and attended by senior Ibstock staff, including the Company Secretary Stephen Hardy. Various BALI members attend. We also arrange visits to the site for our members accompanied by the friendly site Manager Steve Chapman. Ibstock also have made and are making submissions to the WMDF and we have asked them to let us have sight of them.
9. Earlier this year, BALI made various representations in respect of the Ashdown area to Rother District Council's Local Development Framework - Core Strategy in the 'Consultation on Strategic Directions'.
10. 1. We particularly objected to the reference to an extension of the 'Country
       Avenue' from the Link Road across the A269 to 'provide the infrastructure essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site'. This statement, we argued, prejudices the results of the County's WMDF nor is such an extension included in any ESCC Transport plan.
    2. We furthermore proposed the creation of a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods, the Ashdown Quarries and the surrounding farmland, analogous and complementary to the Pebsham Countryside Park being created in East Bexhill.
    All BALI's objections and proposals have been registered by RDC and appear on their LDF website.
11. We have developed a website at www.nolandfillatbexhill.org
12. BALI continues to receive heartening support from the local public and from various local groups e.g. the Highwoods Preservation Society and the Rother Environmental Group. Also from local amenities that would be seriously affected by a landfill, for example Highwoods Golf Club, which hosts our meetings and provides copying facilities, etc.
13. BALI enjoys and much appreciates the unwavering support of our MP Greg Barker, whom we consult regularly. We understand he is planning, at a suitable moment, to use his regular local newspaper column to support our campaign.
14. BALI continues to seek further political support, which our Consultant advises should accompany any legal action if we are to achieve success. We particularly need support from our County and District Councillors which is lacking at the present time. (We have sadly lost firm supporters such as Graham Gubby, Ron Dyason and Stuart Earl). At the present time most Councillors, with significant exceptions (e.g. Cllr Martyn Forster), seem to doubt there is any longer a real threat of a new landfill in Bexhill. We believe that the publication of the Council's Preferred Strategy for Waste in October will show all too clearly the current threat and BALI will then make a fresh effort to enlist more Councillor support for our cause. It goes without saying that BALI is an apolitical organization with members and supporters from all political parties and we welcome support from whatever quarter.
15. BALI plans to shortly hold meetings with Mathew Lock, Lead Member, Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council and Rupert Chubb, the Director of T&E. These have both made the statement that 'burying waste in the ground is no longer an option' and we seek to understand what this means and why it would not apply to Ashdown Brickworks. They will also have the latest information on the capacity of the Newhaven Incinerator and the proposed new roads.
16. BALI also seeks help and support to make and suggest realistic plans to alternatively restore the Ashdown Quarry site once excavated. We have no expertise in this matter and urgently seek such. As stated, we have suggested to RDC that it form part of a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods and surrounding farmland, but we have no idea how to develop this proposal further. It is naive to suggest to Ibstock, owned by a huge American conglomerate, that their quarries simply become a 'nature reserve'. They view them quite properly as a valuable company asset and seek to protect their commercial position. For whatever is suggested a commercial case must be made.
    There is also a difficult question to face. We talk of 'landfill' as 'bad', but the Ashdown holes will have to at least part filled with something in order to restore them. As regards filling them with water we are told the site is too small for a reservoir, nor could they become a leisure lake for boating etc. unless at least half-filled with land.
17. BALI continues to follow developments in national policy on waste, waste planning in other counties and planning applications for landfill sites elsewhere, sometimes liaising with their protest groups. There has been a particularly high number of applications in West Sussex and a high-profile political campaign by their MPs and Councillors against such applications. There is a particular relevant planning application to BALI, currently out for consultation, at Laybrook, near Thakeham. This is an Ibstock Quarry, like Ashdown, and we are following developments there closely.

Nick Hollington
BALI Chairman
September 2009