BALI Chairman Newsletter - November 2009

Our feet have hardly touched the ground since the extraordinarily successful Public Meeting on 6th November regarding which our Consultant commented: "BALI is to be congratulated for all the organization required for this most excellent meeting-certainly one of the biggest and best I have ever attended".

I have written personally to thank all of the speakers, also to the 60 or so people whose names we collected who were unfortunately locked out. Greg Barker MP has also written to them. If anyone was locked out and we didn't collect your name please accept my apologies.

The reaction from the public has been phenomenal and it is clear that so many people have submitted objections to the proposed landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. They often have sent BALI copies – some of them exceptionally well argued - of their letters of objection to ESCC, many using our Consultant's guide to 'How to Object?' given out at the meeting and sent to all those 'locked out' as well as many others. I shall be giving this guide out again when I address the Town Forum tonight. We are approaching the last week of the Consultation and we are making a last push to make sure as many people as possible submit their objections.

The phone hardly stops ringing with enquiries, although many people use our email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk. Some of these are from those who would be particularly affected. For instance, Alex Skilton of Chestnut Meadow Camping and Caravan Park emailed us yesterday to ask whether any "buffer zone" was required between a landfill zone and tourist amenities. Such a "buffer zone" is indeed mentioned in the Preferred Strategy but the distance is not specified. We would argue that it should be the 500 metres used for the SSSIs (though seemingly not applied to the Highwoods) or the 1km from urban areas applied to landraise sites.

Donations and Other Practical Help

Many people have been asking where to send donations (Please send to: BALI Treasurer Pauline Rosner, 16 Hillborough Close, Little Common, Bexhill on Sea TN39 3TW ) or if they can offer practical help. Martin Hargreaves of Sidley has produced an adapted map of Google Earth illustrating the distance of the quarries from local amenities and has produced his own illustrated flyer in "layman’s language" to distribute locally.

New Concerns

Also people feed in new concerns or information or make independent enquiries - which we fully encourage. Russell Dufton fed in to us his particular concern about low-level nuclear waste, which the government recently decided could be put in ordinary landfill sites. Russell has also made and is continuing to make enquiries of Euro MPs such as the leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas.

Health Concerns

Other residents are concerned about the fly ash and bottom ash from incinerators to be placed in landfill which can amount to 25-30% of the waste burnt and contains dioxins. I have referred them to the excellent Friends of the Earth report on "The Safety of Incinerator Ash".

Indeed local residents are very concerned about health issues for themselves or their children attending the local High School and quite rightly so. Already, one resident pointed out, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reported last year "significantly poorer health among residents of Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne than in the rest of the County."

Alternative Uses for the Ashdown Site

We have received a lot of correspondence suggesting alternative and better uses for the Ashdown site which could become an important resident and tourist amenity.

BALI has already made a registered suggestion to Rother District Council in their Local Development Framework that there be a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods, the Ashdown quarries and surrounding ancient woodland and rolling countryside and farmland, but we have currently neither the time nor expertise to develop such a project.

Alan Malpass of the Highwoods supports such a scheme and Sandra Melvin of Bexhill in Bloom has made some rough sketches of how she believes the quarries could be restored and landscaped. We have written to all those interested and several environmentalists such as Dr Edward Echlin suggesting a parallel or 'sister' group to BALI be formed to formulate more detailed proposals with the aid of experts in the field.

Support from Local Groups

Many local community groups I have been helping write their submissions, most importantly Highwoods Preservation Society: please read their submission.

The Highwoods Golf Club voted unanimously at their recent AGM to support our campaign and to donate £500 to BALI. (A further £100 was received from the Club Captain on behalf of the golfers.) The Club Secretary (John Hollands) has also submitted the Club's objections to ESCC on behalf of its 805 members asking these to be considered as 805 separate objections.

Support from Local Councillors

It is also heartening that more Councillors have come through to support us, as illustrated by letters from them to the Bexhill Observer. But they are still only a small proportion of the 38 Rother District Councillors, 18 of whom represent Bexhill and we still need and are trying to get far more RDC Councillor support.

Also no County Councillor has yet stated clearly his or her opposition to the proposals - and yet this is largely a County Council matter. They claim they must not "predetermine" themselves, but our legal advice is that this does not mean they cannot say anything. They can be "predisposed" to opposing the landfill, saying for example that "On the evidence I have seen, a landfill in this location would not be suitable or workable", as long as it is clear that they have not entirely made up their mind.

Response from Rother District Council

We are waiting for the official response of Rother District Council (RDC) to the Preferred Strategy as key 'statutory consultee'. We are advised that if RDC are clearly against the proposed landfill it is unlikely that ESCC will proceed to place it in their Core Strategy.

We are also hoping the Bexhill Town Charter Trustees might accept a motion of opposition to the landfill in the name of protecting the town of Bexhill and have written to the Mayor and several Trustees accordingly.

BALI's latest Action

BALI's Official Response

Our Consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard is now preparing BALI's official response to the ESCC which, apart from Rother District Council's own response, will probably be the most important submission, which is not to undervalue those made by local groups or members of the public.

Geoff, who spoke at the Public Meeting and gave detailed advice to residents on how to object to the proposals, is an ex-planner with bags of experience and knowledge of planning law. In 2005 he had a famous victory representing the Mountfield action group in successfully removing the proposal for a waste incinerator in Mountfield from the ESCC Waste Local Plan. Let's hope he achieves the same result for BALI and Bexhill!

Geoff is also pressing ESCC to investigate the other 'opportunity areas' mentioned as possibilities for landraise sites in the Preferred Strategy but not detailed in any way. These have been the subject of a study by Scott Wilson which is hidden away in the Supporting Papers to the Strategy, but this has been so far a desk-based study with no detailed out-of-the-office investigation.

BALI will insist that every one of these areas is investigated for potential sites and that these sites are then compared on a level playing field with Ashdown. We will be asking in particular why they consider that these be subject to a buffer zone of 1 kilometre from urban areas but this constraint is not applied to Ashdown.

BALI attends the The Link Road Enquiry

BALI's Mike and Pauline Rosner and Barbara Rogers have been attending the Link Road Public Inquiry in Hastings where they have objected to what they/we see as an attempt to spend large sums of public money on a major access road to the Ashdown site. This is not the Link Road itself but a spur road off it from a point above Glover's Farm leading to the A269 which would meet up with it at a point where a service road could be driven in (on the other side) to the Ashdown site. This road is already in Council plans and is called euphemistically the 'Country Avenue'.

BALI Committee Changes

But our main activity in BALI at the moment is to ‘regroup’ and expand our committees and increase the number of our active helpers. This might seem strange in that we would surely hope that Ashdown is removed from the ESCC Core Strategy as a result of all the objections made in the current consultation? This may indeed happen but, after 7 years of fighting this proposal, BALI is only too well aware of the resistance of ESCC to letting go of this proposal and the determination of the site owners Ibstock to pursue a landfill on their site for their commercial profit.

While hopeful of success in removing Ashdown from the Core Strategy, BALI -and Bexhill- must be prepared for the ‘worst-case scenario’ that Ashdown is (still) included in what’s called the “presubmission Core Strategy” scheduled to be published in February 2010 (but I believe it will be much later, when a further consultation will be held.

We must be prepared for a long fight, which is why BALI, a small team this past year, is currently regrouping into two enlarged committees: a Campaign Committee and a Fundraising Committee. Many people, on the back of the Public Meeting and your newspaper coverage have come forward to offer help and we shall be writing to them this week to see what particular help they are willing to offer.

Join in the Campaign!

If you haven't given your name and would be willing to help BALI, please ring Nick Hollington on 01424 843046, or call 01424 220109 or 01424 845688, or mobile 07814 895874, or write to PO Box 194 Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 9BD, or email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk.

On behalf of BALI I'd like to thank all our helpers and supporters for their encouragement to us to go on fighting, with your help to stop this awful proposal which will blight our and our children's lives for over 20 years, if it comes to fruition. we will continue to fight tooth and nail to prevent a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. If Bexhill is united against it, and stays united, I believe we will win.

Nick Hollington

Chairman, BALI Campaign Committee

23rd November 2009

Chairmans Speech to the Public Meeting November 6th 2009

BALI Chairman's Speech

Nick Hollington: 6th November 2009

First of all, on behalf of BALI, I'd like to welcome you all to this meeting and particularly the speakers who have so generously given their time to address us here tonight, and to Greg Barker, our MP, for kindly agreeing to Chair it.

For many in the audience, particularly our loyal BALI supporters, this third meeting here in this very hall, with this very same Chairman – we met here in 2002 and 2005 - to oppose a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks, must feel a bit like what is nowadays called Groundhog Day in reference to the film of the same name about a man who continually repeats the same day over and over again, seemingly trapped in an endless time-loop.
I have to say I have often felt like that myself these past few years.

I believe, however, that we can now break this cycle, as did the character in the film, and remove this dark spectre that continually hangs over us of a massive waste dump on our doorstep.

I meet or get calls almost every day from people who ask me about BALI and the proposed landfill at Ashdown and I really enjoy giving them information and hearing their views and, above all, receiving their encouragement for what BALI is doing. What I have to say I don't enjoy is hearing some people claiming to know what is going to happen regarding a landfill at Ashdown whether it's of the 'Oh! It's never going to happen' variety or the 'Oh! That's bound to happen whatever we do' kind. I have to tell you – and I'm sure the gentlemen from ESCC here tonight will confirm it - that NO firm decision has yet been reached on a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. At the same time, I strongly believe that, if we do nothing, a landfill will probably happen, with all its egregious consequences for the community of Bexhill, consequences that any people here from the Pebsham area have had to suffer, I'm sorry to say, for the last 25 years or so. Doing nothing, as they say, is not an option.

Why, you may well ask, is it so difficult to defeat this pernicious proposal, which to many of us here seems so blindingly obviously wrong? Well there are lots of reasons, but three main ones I think.

Firstly, Ashdown is what is called a minerals void, a large hole in the ground (in fact two holes) caused by the excavation of clay. Traditionally, the simple answer to waste has been to bury it in such holes and of course this is also of great value to the owners of the holes, who eventually will otherwise be required to restore the land at their own cost when the pit is fully excavated, and in effect, by this means, get paid vast sums for doing so.

Secondly, Ashdown was, in 2006, despite BALI's opposition, identified in what is called the Waste Local Plan as the only site for landfill in the County. Now we have come to a new plan, what's called a Core Strategy for Waste. Unfortunately, however, there's a tradition that I've never really understood that if something goes in one plan it is more or less automatically transferred to the next. In that case, I'd say, what's the point in making new plans?

Thirdly – and this is controversial and would be denied by many – Councillors in the rest of East Sussex and Brighton and Hove will expect the waste to come to Ashdown because otherwise it would raise the possibility of a landfill in their area. They will say 'There's a big hole in Bexhill. It's quite obvious it should go there'. They might add with their thoughts, if not their words 'After all, we've always sent our waste to Bexhill'.

This is why it's so important that our local Bexhill councillors defend our interests. No-one else will!

So, given this heavy pressure to use Ashdown as a landfill site, how can we defeat this proposal and emerge out of Groundhog Day? How can we get Ashdown removed from the Core Strategy in the Consultation that is now taking place? Well, our Consultant, Geoff Smith will be giving us detailed advice on this shortly, but let me, if I may, set the scene:

The gentlemen from ESCC Waste Team here tonight, who are highly professional people to whom I trust you will listen to respectfully, have a huge job, which I don't envy, to manage the approximate 2 million tonnes of waste produced in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove each year. I imagine it must be like a giant jigsaw puzzle where you have to fit different pieces in different places: somewhere an incinerator, somewhere a waste transfer station, somewhere composting .... and, let's face it, nobody ideally wants any waste facility in their backyard. It's a difficult task and they are seriously trying to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill but, at the end of the day, there's this big jigsaw piece of waste that needs to be landfilled somewhere. So then there is what appears to be a big suitable space for that jigsaw piece in Bexhill. It's a mineral void hole in the ground, perhaps it's even the right size. It looks on the surface as if this jigsaw piece goes there. But.. a big but.. problems arise when you try to put that piece in. When you do, I believe, however you twist it and turn it, it simply doesn't’t fit Ashdown.

Because what it has to fit is not just the physical space – and that is even subject to doubt as the quarries are not yet fully excavated, but it has also to fit government and county policies which determine where you can and where you can’t put a landfill site.

Now, it may surprise you to know that BALI supports all government policies regarding the siting of landfill and particularly ESCC's own policy in its new plan. It's called 'Spatial Policy CS6'. We have no quarrels with it. We think it's excellent. We just don't understand how the Council could possibly select Ashdown as a landfill site under that – their own-policy.

Let me give you a few examples of what I mean:

• Policy CS6 states that the Council must demonstrate that there is no unacceptable impact on the local environment.
  
  In more detail it states that a landfill site should not be situated less than 500 metres away from valued environments such as ancient woodland, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and areas of outstanding natural beauty. But you surely couldn't have a more valued environment in Bexhill than the Highwoods – yes, ancient woodland, an SSSI - and it's less than not 500 metres, but 50 metres away from the quarries and it's unique flora and fauna would be devastated by a landfill so close to its borders.
• Policy CS6 also states that the Council must demonstrate that there is no unacceptable impact on communities.
  Well I don't think the people in this audience and the community of 5000 or so people living within a mile of the site - and many much less than that, would agree for one minute that the impact of a landfill at Ashdown would be acceptable. In detail the Strategy talks about effect on the users of local amenities. Well how about, for instance, the people who daily visit their departed loved ones in the cemetery 250 metres away, the golfers at the Highwoods Golf Club just across the road from the site and I believe, most importantly of all, the 1600 or so young people who will be studying in the new Bexhill High School being built just behind us and within 800 metres from the Ashdown site.
  I give one more example but there are others;
• Policy CS6 states that the Council must demonstrate that there is good access to the main areas of waste arisings in East Sussex
  and I would remind you that by far the greatest area of waste arisings is Brighton and Hove.  How could they possibly demonstrate that? Good access? Sorry – hopeless access! Waste trucks can't possibly use Turkey road, Whydown Road, Pear Tree Lane, St Mary'’s Lane, Gunters Lane, Sidley High Street. Even if they were to slip an access road in from the Ninfield Road, the A269, that road is insufficient and how would that slip road entrance be accessed from Hastings or Bexhill?
  Of course, what they need is the Link Road and then a substantial spur road from it leading to the A269 and then the slip road. Well that might happen in 10-15 years time, but the Council needs landfill sites now: they don't have any at the present time.
  

So the jigsaw piece simply doesn't fit - and if they tried to make it fit, to force it in, it will be a disaster. But they might try, so we must act.

 

So What Do We Have To Do?

Well three things again and many of these are already underway.

1. BALI needs to present a strong case in planning terms to ESCC as to why their Preferred Option for landfill at Ashdown is, and I use planning terms here: 'unsafe', 'unsound' and  not 'effective'. In common parlance that simply means wrong.
   One change in modern planning practice is that the Council must have what is called a strong 'evidence base' to justify any identification of a site for landfill. We believe that the evidence in the case of Ashdown is 'flawed' -another planning term- and we will present our own robust evidence base to show that Ashdown is unsuitable and unworkable in the time-frame required. Through the generosity of our supporters we have been able to afford to instruct a distinguished legal – planning Consultant Geoff Smith, who will speak to you tonight, and his case is almost ready now to submit in the current consultation.
2. Rother District Council will also make a submission to ESCC as what's called a 'statutory consultee' and their submission will carry great weight. We hope that they will again point out the flaws in the proposal that make it currently unworkable and therefore 'unsafe' and 'unsound'.
3. Last, but not least, we need the CLEAR VOCAL SUPPORT OF OUR MP (We have it), OUR COUNCILLORS (some give it, some still don'’t, I'm afraid) and the GOOD PEOPLE OF BEXHILL who have shown their support by turning out it in such numbers on this damp miserable November night and who can each play their part by making submissions to the consultation and by writing to their councillors urging their support for BALI.

 

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In the film GROUNDHOG DAY, the main character uses his continual experiences of reliving the past to improve himself, to learn more about his surroundings and to work with others for good. One day he wakes up - and the time-loop is broken. It's a new dawn! In the same way, if we can defeat this proposal - but we must act now!- we can move on with our lives and start planning something really special for the Ashdown site once it is excavated and many of our speakers will address this much more attractive prospect this very evening.

Again, I thank you for coming this evening.

Nick Hollington, Chairman, BALI

Unity Against Landfill Plan for Ashdown Brickworks

By Ben Higgins - Published Bexhill Observer Date: 13 November 2009

HUNDREDS of landfill protesters packed out a public meeting about the fate of Ashdown Brickworks.
Politics were laid aside for the event, as speakers from all corners of the town united in solidarity against the possibility of a new landfill site.

Bexhill High School hall reached its 350 capacity well before the 7pm start. Around 60 people were locked out in the rain.

Bexhill's MP Greg Barker, who chaired the meeting, said: "There will be a battle to stop this site being used for landfill. There's a huge amount at stake — the future of the town, the value of your homes, the environment you pass on to the next generation and the health of our residents.

""We can win if we all come together."

Donations on the night raised £1,170 to support Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration (BALI), which organised Friday's meeting.

The two-and-a-half-hour meeting, the third of its kind since 2002, gave context to East Sussex County Council's (ESCC) decision to name Ashdown Brickworks, Turkey Road, as the preferred choice for a major new landfill site designed to take 4.5million tonnes of waste from East Sussex and Brighton and Hove until 2026.

Geoff Smith, BALI's legal consultant, urged residents to submit protests and passed around a handout explaining the best way to register an objection.

He said: "Some people think all the letters you write will not make any difference at all. I know there are key times when letters and submissions matter. This is that time. They will matter. We have a really big chance to take Ashdown Brickworks out of the waste plan once and for all."

ESCC was represented by Ian Blake, a team manager for the Waste and Mineral Planning Policy document, published in September, in which Ashdown Brickworks is the only site specifically named and highlighted on a map detailing possible landfill locations.

After explaining his role, Mr Blake took questions from an audience angered by the prospect of accepting around 1,120 tonnes of the county's waste each day for 11 years, during which he confirmed ESCC plans to ignore government recommendations that the new landfill accept 8.8 per cent of London's waste – 106,000 tonnes a year.

A procession of Bexhill's community figures outlined the damage they believed the landfill could cause.

Alan Malpass, president of Highwoods Preservation Society, said the landfill would be a "tragedy" for the nearby Site of Special Scientific Interest, and warned of a devastating explosion in the population of rats and gulls.

Dominic Manning, of Rother Environmental Group, and Dr Edward Echlin both counselled a responsible attitude towards recycling before Stuart Earl, of the Little Common Business Association, spoke about the damage such a landfill would do for the town's business community.

Brian Storkey, of the Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, said: "Bexhill absolutely depends on tourism for our shops to survive. This could deter big business from investing, and small businesses from starting up.

Mr Storkey, of the Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, continued: "It could be disastrous. One thing is certain – it will not be a visitor attraction."

Further speeches from two of the 12 Rother District councillors who attended, Cllrs Forster and Lendon, added weight to the objectors, balanced by a cautious approach from Cllr Michael Ensor, also a county councillor, who said he was "neither definitely for, nor against the plans", but encouraged people to comment.

Cllr Lendon's 93-year-old father, Ronald Lendon MBE, told Bexhill to "have none of it", and remembered bad experiences of St Mary's Lane landfill when he was a Bexhill councillor 50 years ago.

Closing the meeting, Greg Barker said: "The town turned out in force tonight and sent one very clear message. We will not stand for a landfill site at Ashdown Brickworks and the people of Bexhill will fight this proposal every step of the way.""

BALI chairman Nick Hollington added: "BALI was very satisfied with the meeting overall, with such a vast range of speakers from different backgrounds and a great public response which humbled us and from which we take great encouragement.

"We hope that everybody will express their objections in the ESCC consultation and in letters to their councillors. In the latter respect, while some councillors came out strongly against the landfill, we would have liked to have seen more support from them and I trust this will be more forthcoming in the coming weeks."

Report on the Public Meeting 6th November 2009

Information about the Public Meeting and Links to the Minutes and other relevant articles.

Thank you to everyone who turned out in the rain and came along to the Public Meeting on 6th November, especially to those who were unable to get in to the meeting to hear the speakers but who wanted to have their say.

Thank you also to those who generously donated to the campaign at the meeting - the fantastic sum of £1,169 was raised.

Please read:
- BALI's minutes of the public meeting, and
- the speech notes from the meeting of Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI.

Read the Bexhill Observer write up of the meeting.

Further news and developments will be published on this website as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please do make your views known via one of the ways set out below but importantly, please let East Sussex County Council know your views and objections.

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How to Object To The Landfill Proposal

Your chance to let East Sussex County Council know what you think about their Preferred Strategy for Waste has been extended until 15th January 2010.

You can comment online at http://consult.eastsussex.gov.uk or submit comments by post to: Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council, C4 Waste and Minerals Policy (AP), FREEPOST LW43, Lewes, BN7 1BE. For telephone enquiries the ESCC number is 01273 481846.

We have set out some Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (and supporting paragraphs) which you may find informative and useful.

 

YOU CAN HELP IN MANY WAYS:

• Please read the Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (and supporting paragraphs),
• Put your views to ESCC in the Consultation:
  
  • online here: http://consult.eastsussex.gov.uk, or
  • By Freepost to: Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council, C4 Waste and Minerals Policy (AP), FREEPOST LW43, Lewes, BN7 1BE.
• Write to our MP, Greg Barker, who chaired the public meeting: details at www.gregorybarker.com,
• Write to your local District and County Councillors: details of your Councillors can be found on the:
  
  • Rother District Website: Councillors List
  • East Sussex County Website: Councillors List
• Join our BALI Committee to fight the dump or volunteer help us deliver leaflets, fundraise, etc.
• Donate to BALI's "Fighting Fund" to help cover our legal costs.

 

For further information contact BALI on 01424 843046, 01424 220109 or 01424 845688, or mobile 07814 895874, or write PO Box 194 Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 9BD.

You can also register your interest at www.gregorybarker.com or call the office on 01424 736861.

 

BALI Headline Comments on ESCC Preferred Strategy For Waste

Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (& supporting paragraphs)
Waste & Minerals Policy, ESCC Preferred Strategy for Waste

(These comments are available for download in pdf format: Headline Comments: pdf)

Preferred Option Selection (section 12)

• Although the Preferred Option states here that there will be further investigations into the identified areas of search, we consider it is unfair that only Ashdown Brickworks is referred to specifically. It should be assessed together with all the other identified areas of search.
  
• Object to the complete paragraph which relates to Ashdown Brickworks as potentially suitable for landfill.
  
• The Preferred Option should only explain the way in which ESCC intend to select sites for land disposal of waste. This selection process is described in the Preferred Strategy as:-
  
  1. Identify and allocate Land Disposal Sites which are allocated avoiding water resources or 'valued environments' (adverse effects on the environment and on the community');
  2. Identify potential at existing disposal sites, or at mineral voids, avoiding water resources and 'valued landscapes';
  3. Allocate locations for land disposal sites for waste close to waste arisings, providing they satisfy the selection criteria.

 

Policy CS6 (6 'bullet points' in the 'Policy')(Section 12)

1. Ashdown Brickworks should not be included in the Primary Area of Search (Plan 4)

Ashdown Brickworks fails on both of the Council's key criteria for inclusion in the Primary Area of Search. It is within 500 metres of 'valued environments' such as areas of ecological importance. There are also concerns over the risk of water pollution and contamination of public water supplies.

If there is a need for a land disposal site for waste, there are several other sites which could be used. The Scott Wilson Report, which has been published as 'evidence base' for this Core Strategy, has stated that further detailed assessment of these areas is required. Until such work is carried out, Ashdown Brickworks should not be 'singled out' as a Preferred Option for waste disposal.

2. There will be an unacceptable impact on the environment

Ashdown Brickworks is very close to High Woods Site of Nature Conservation Interest. Also Little High Wood Site of Nature Conservation Interest is within the Ashdown brickworks site.

There are other potential risks to the ecology of the area, including harm to important breeding birds from scavenging birds, and potential adverse impacts to the ecology of ponds and woodland in the vicinity of the brickworks.

3. There would be cumulative adverse impacts on the Local Community. This harm would be greater than when the current Waste Local Plan was prepared.

As well as the inevitable adverse impact on the significant number of new homes within the vicinity of Ashdown brickworks, there is now also a new Bexhill High School for over 1600 pupils within 700 metres of the site. This will increase substantially the number of people either living, or at school, within 1500 metres of the site.

As well as the harm to the environment of the local residents and school children, there are a significant number of people who frequent the area in the vicinity of the brickworks for leisure purposes, such as members and guests at the High Woods Golf Club and those who enjoy the High Woods for woodland walks. Both of these locations are within 250 metres of the Ashdown brickworks site. Also, the Bexhill Cemetery, immediately to the east of the brickworks, could experience harm to its environment and particularly to its tranquility.

4. There is very poor vehicular access to the Ashdown Brickworks

The existing roads in the vicinity of Ashdown brickworks are totally unsuitable to service the use of Ashdown brickworks as a land disposal site.

In order for this site to be satisfactorily accessed by waste disposal vehicles, it would require the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road to be completed. This is currently programmed to open by the end of 2012, already 4 years later than planned. It would also require the construction of further roads in the area, as well as a new access into the site. This total infrastructure is very unlikely to be constructed for several years, if at all.

5. The availability of Ashdown brickworks for waste disposal by landfill is not confirmed

This Preferred Strategy, in Section 12, accepts that there are operational constraints to using the Ashdown brickworks site for landfill, and that its potential capacity for landfill together with its availability / timing would need to be established in more detail.

This uncertainty on the site's availability should lead the site selection process away from this site, for this reason alone, as the Preferred Strategy seeks a site which is available in the short-term. In the medium to long term there should be an increasing shift towards minimising waste; and disposing of waste in other more suitable ways, rather than through landfill.

Appendix A - Strategy for Implementation

Policy CS6 - Delete all References to Ashdown Brickworks

The Strategy for Implementation of land disposal facilities for residual waste should be based on the identification and allocation of suitable locations. These locations have not yet been agreed by East Sussex County Council or Brighton and Hove City Council. This is clearly stated in this Document (Section 12) and also in the Scott Wilson Land Disposal Area Identification Study October 2009. The specific references to Ashdown Brickworks in the 'Strategy for Implementation' is pre-judging the outcome of this Study.

Big Hitters take up the Rubbish Dump Fight

Bexhill Observer Article: Published Date: 6th November 2009

Campaigners against a massive rubbish dump off Turkey Road expect a capacity 300 gathering at a protest meeting tonight.

The meeting is being organised by BALI, the local action group.
It will be held at Bexhill High School, Gunters Lane, at 7pm.

MP Greg Barker will chair the meeting which will be opened by BALI campaigner Nick Hollington. The gathering will then be briefed by legal and planning experts as well as local councillors and resident's groups and local conservation and environmental groups.

BALI has distributed 4,000 leaflets in an effort to drum up support for the meeting.

Mr Hollington said "East Sussex County Council are sending top executives from their Waste Team to make a powerpoint presentation of their Waste Strategy and our BALI Consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard will be 'replying' and explaining how people can object to the landfill in the Consultation that has just started.

2Then we have some very good environmental speakers, perhaps especially the well-known Alan Malpass who believes a landfill will decimate the bird population and wildlife of the adjacent Highwoods, a much-treasured beauty spot and Site of Special Scientific Interest. The key councillors will speak - it is eventually their views and decisions that will count.

"Finally we have an interesting 'double-act' of Ron Lendon MBE, a former Bexhill councillor who was instrumental in closing the St. Mary's Lane landfill in the 1960's, followed by his son, Cllr. Paul Lendon who, following his father's footsteps, is now opposing a landfill at Ashdown.

"Questions and speeches from the floor will take place at various stages and I expect a lot of local people will wish to give their views."

Other speakers will include Brian Storkey of Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and Stuart Earl of Little Common Business Association.

Mr Barker said "I hope that there will be a really good turnout for this important meeting. A huge landfill site at the Ashdown Brickworks would have huge and very negative implications for the whole town, not just nearby local residents.

But to fight this, we must form the widest possible coalition and engage positively in the process.

"The team at BALI have worked incredibly hard in recent years but now they need more help."

Read the original article on the Bexhill Observer website.