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.

Ashdown Brickworks is first choice for a vast new landfill site

Article By Ben Higgins: Published Date: 01 October 2009
Bexhill Observer October 2nd 2009

East Sussex County Council named the Turkey Road excavation as their preferred choice in a 133 page document released this week outlining their core strategy for waste production in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex until 2026.

At a meeting last Wednesday, ESCC Cabinet approved a planning timescale which sees applications discussed next year and work beginning in 2012.

Key local figures reacted swiftly to the news, with local MP Greg Barker calling a public meeting to launch a campaign against the proposals.

Nick Hollington, chair of the Bexhill Against Landfill Incineration group, labelled plans: "a pernicious proposal with a devastating effect on the whole town of Bexhill."

Rother District Council also oppose the plans. In a meeting on Monday, Nick asked Leader of the Council Carl Maynard if he recognised "the egregious effect such a landfill, if implemented, would have on the town of Bexhill and that it would set back, if not nullify, the Council's efforts to achieve its regeneration?"

Cllr Maynard responded, saying: "Rother District Council had consistently and fundamentally opposed the inclusion of the land at Pebsham and Ashdown Brickworks in the Waste Local Plan."

The relevant section of the waste plan reads, under the Preferred Option Selection heading: "The Waste Local Plan currently allocates Ashdown Brickworks as potentially suitable for Landfill."

"Ashdown Brickworks offers a substantial mineral void close to one of the major urban areas of waste arisings in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove."

Having been cleared by ESCC, the strategy now looks set for approval by Brighton and Hove City Council on October 15.

A six week period of public consultation will follow.

From October 21 to December 2, organisations such as BALI and Rother District Council, as well as members of the public, have the opportunity to submit their views. Details of how to contribute to the consultation will appear from October 21 2009 at an ESCC subsite: consult.eastsussex.gov.uk

Depending on levels of waste growth, it is estimated that between 34 and 37 million tonnes of waste will be produced by East Sussex and Brighton and Hove between 2011 and 2027.

With recycling taken into account, and the work of a new incinerator planned to open in Newhaven in 2012, the final figure for waste pumped into the new landfill by 2026 is estimated at 4.5million tonnes.

There are currently no restrictions on the type of waste that would be dumped.

The strategy does indicate other areas that could be considered, mostly around Uckfield and Lewes, but Ashdown Brickworks is the only confirmed specific option.

Nick Hollington, who will represent BALI in a consultation meeting with ESCC on November 5, said: "I think they are only going to look elsewhere if Ashdown is turned down as a location. If, as we hope to do, we come up with reasons why Ashdown is unacceptable. Then they will look at these areas of search."

BALI will argue the landfill will create an unacceptable impact on the local environment and communities.

Supporting this, members may mention the estimated 4,000 residents of west Bexhill living within one mile of the site, the flagship new High School half a mile away, the adjacent Bexhill Cemetery, and nearby Highwoods Nature Reserve, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

They will also argue the site cannot be delivered within the short time-frame required by ESCC.

Nick said: "The news is extremely serious and a wake-up call to the people of Bexhill, some of whom have doubted that the threat of a landfill was real. It's staring us in the face now, but if we can all get together to fight this monstrous plan we can defeat it. But we must act now."

Hundreds of residents attended a similar public meeting organised by Greg Barker in 2002 when the threat of a Bexhill Landfill first became apparent.

That meeting lead to the creation of BALI, and the two offices have now joined forces with local councillors and environmental groups to spearhead a renewed campaign.

Greg said: "A landfill site of this size and in this location would be an absolute disaster for so many reasons, and of course all the waste disposal methods, landfill and the dangerous methane gases it creates has the very worst impact on climate change.

"I want to head this off at the pass and ensure that such a proposal never comes to fruition in Bexhill, be it in five years time or twenty years time.

"Thankfully for the town the BALI committee has been quietly working very hard indeed over this period but we cannot now leave this fight all to them.

"We need to back BALI with a strong and cross-party campaign, a broad alliance of groups. Communities and individuals need to come together right across the town."

John Heasman, Vice Chair of Bexhill Labour Party and a committee member of the preservation society for nearby Highwoods Nature Reserve, said: "I am appalled that this site should even be considered for landfill with non-inert waste.
"Opening this site would cause considerable extra vehicle movements, including heavy lorries, that would be stressful to local residents and impact negatively on the well being of local communities.

"The dumping of non-inert waste so close to Highwoods would also have a catastrophic effect on the ecology of a valuable recreational area which is enjoyed by many Bexhill residents.

"I give my full support to BALI on this issue."

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The public meeting will be chaired by Greg Barker at **Bexhill High School, Gunters Lane, Bexhill on Friday, November 6 at 7pm. [**Note that this venue is a change from that originally published]

Greg said: ""I hope as many people as possible will come. It would be extremely helpful if we had an idea of how many to expect, as it is possible we may need a bigger venue, so I would be very grateful if people could either register their intention to come on my website or call my office on 01424 736861."

For information or to register interest, visit www.gregorybarker.com

See the original article on the Bexhill Observer website