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