BALI Chairman Newsletter - January 2010

The consultation is over; the fight continues. While feeling satisfied that we, BALI, and the people of Bexhill, have done our utmost in the current campaign to remove Ashdown Brickworks as a landfill site from the County’s waste plan, we know from past experience how obdurate the County Council is regarding using this site for waste and so we cannot and will not relax our efforts.

Our sources tell us that there have been over 800 objections to the County's 'Preferred Strategy for Waste' since its publication last October. Furthermore many of these have been from local groups representing up to (in the case of Highwoods Golf Club) 800 members.

Rother District Council, an extremely important 'statutory consultee', has strongly opposed the proposal to use Ashdown Brickworks for landfill and councillors and representatives of all political parties have expressed wholehearted support for BALI in the local press, which has also come out strongly against this pernicious proposal that would damage our town in so many ways.

After RDC's submission, possibly the most important submission is BALI's own, long in the preparation and submitted only last week, consisting of 27 pages of detailed forceful argument in planning terms by our expert legal-planning consultants DMH Stallard. We take no credit for this; such work is expensive and has only been possible through the generous donations from local groups and individuals to our Fighting Fund both before and during our current campaign. We can but thank them profusely.

It is important to note, however, that Bexhill are not the only community opposing the County’s waste plans. The Preferred Strategy vaguely suggests – on a map – as an addition or alternative to Ashdown, 'areas of search' for landraise sites (like Pebsham) in the Low Weald which have been identified as being near such communities as Golden Cross, Hellingly, Hailsham, Chiddingly and others. Their parish councils have accordingly formed their own action group to oppose landfill/raise in their area supported by their MPs Charles Hendry and Norman Baker. (In a similar way our own MP Greg Barker has unwaveringly supported BALI for over 7 years and continues to be a 'tower of strength' for our cause).

'NIMBYS!' we might say – or they might say of us. We don't, of course: they have the same right to defend their local community as ourselves, and they take the same view of our struggle in Bexhill. I was pleased to be invited to their packed public meeting in Hailsham, last Saturday and gratified to hear that they do not suggest simply that waste be buried in the ground at Ashdown. Rather they are strongly urging East Sussex County Council, as is BALI, to rethink their whole waste policy. Landfill or landraise are mediaeval solutions to the massive modern problem of waste disposal. They are saying to East Sussex, and BALI firmly agrees: 'Go back to the Drawing Board!' Make a new plan- to further reduce waste (e.g. packaging), reuse it, recycle it more and if it has to be disposed, compost it or at least recover energy from it through the many 21st century technologies available. If whole countries, like Sweden or Germany, more or less do without any landfill today, how is it that ESCC is now planning to put waste in the ground until at least 2026?!

WILL THEY (ESCC) LISTEN? - is the big question. They will certainly register all the objections made and make a massive database which will be made available to the public on the ESCC website. But will they listen? We shall now have to wait and see.

WHEN WILL WE KNOW? - whether Ashdown is included in the next stage of the plan? The next stage, called the 'pre-submission Core Strategy', was scheduled to be published in February. ESCC Waste Team , however, have admitted that, partly owing to the extension of the consultation period, they are way behind schedule and that they need far more time to sift the massive number of objections and further investigate the viability of both Ashdown and the landraise areas of search. We therefore do not expect to hear anything conclusive before April or May 2010 (or even June).

SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW? Just wait? No way! The fight has to go on and we shall use every opportunity to continue to oppose the landfill plan in the coming months.

• Our consultants have requested ESCC - and they have agreed – to enter into a continuing dialogue with BALI while the Core Strategy is being prepared in which we hope to further influence the process before the Core Strategy is published.
• We will receive shortly the results of our request to ESCC under the Freedom of Information Act to reveal all their records of their dealings with the Ashdown site-owners Ibstock. You will recall that Ibstock have already entered into an agreement with a waste contractor to make a planning application to landfill the Ashdown quarries, they say 'with the encouragement of East Sussex County Council'. We need to ensure that this is not so and that ESCC are proceeding with their plan transparently and in good faith with the people of Bexhill.
• We will continue to liaise with Bexhill and Rother County Councillors to ensure they do their job in defending our town and fully representing their residents’ and the District Council's clearly stated views. We are not convinced that the rules of ‘predetermination’ prevent them from speaking out to reassure us of their current opposition to the landfill proposal. There is much more they could say and do to satisfy our and the Bexhill community's concerns.
• We will continue to campaign in the press and other media, addressing meetings and keeping in touch with our increasing numbers of supporters. While hoping we will win at this stage and that Ashdown will be excluded from the Core Strategy, we must prepare for the eventuality that Ashdown is still included, in which case we will simply have to fight all over again – we will never give in - in the new consultation that will follow. If it is included, however, ESCC will need to give far more details of their proposal and explain why they have not heeded all our objections.
• We are already preparing for this by regrouping into 2 new committees, the BALI Campaign Committee and the BALI Fundraising Committee. We will be shortly writing to those who have kindly offered help at or since our public meeting whether by joining these committees or supporting them by delivering leaflets, assisting at our fundraising events etc.
• If you would like to help BALI, and have not already applied, please phone me on 01424 843046 or (Fundraising) Mike Rosner on 01424 845688. If you wish to make a donation – and we certainly need further funds - please send it to the BALI Treasurer, Pauline Rosner, at 16 Hillborough Close, Little Common, Bexhill on Sea TN39 3TW.

I would finally like to thank all those who have given BALI such tremendous support in defending our environment and our community of Bexhill.

Nick Hollington Chairman, BALI

BALI Chairman Newsletter - December 2009

Christmas & New Year Message from Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI
as published in the Bexhill Observer dated 11th December 2009

Dear Sir/Madam

On behalf of BALI, I would like to thank all those who have supported us, including your newspaper, in our opposition to the proposed landfill at Ashdown Brickworks since East Sussex County Council published its new waste plan in September.

This has been a hectic time for BALI, but we have been strongly encouraged by the volume of letters, emails and phone calls we have received as also the reception of the public at the meetings we have addressed. The climax of our campaign was, of course, our packed Public Meeting on November 6th, where speaker after speaker, representing various community groups or political parties, or simply themselves, spoke forceful and intelligently of the many devastating dangers of such a huge dump so close to residents' homes and local amenities such as the Highwoods and the new Bexhill High School.

We believe such a landfill will adversely affect our whole town in various ways in terms of waste truck routes, air pollution, depreciation in house prices, effects on tourism and business, etc. all of which will, if the proposal is implemented, militate against the quality of life we enjoy in Bexhill and the economic regeneration we seek. Bexhill has done enough in disposing of the County's waste: we cannot continually be the County's dumping ground.

If we are to be called 'NIMBYS' so be it, but no-one else will protect our environment if we ourselves don't. In fact, however, BALI does not support the dumping of waste in the ground anywhere. It is the most environmentally damaging of all ways of dealing with rubbish and wastes valuable resources which could be reused, recycled or recovered. Neither does it encourage the essential reduction of waste which we need to achieve. In any case, in the 21st Century there are many new technologies available to deal with waste which are far more efficient and friendly. Landfill should be history.

There are no benefits whatsoever for Bexhill in accepting a landfill as your previous correspondent Mr. Minter has suggested. Waste trucks will simply arrive and dump their loads at Ashdown (it will not be a civic amenity) creating little employment gain to counteract jobs that may be lost elsewhere, even perhaps at the Brickworks itself. Rother District and its taxpayers will receive no financial reward while the site-owner and waste contractor will pocket huge sums of money at our expense. There is no 'other side of the coin'.

In this respect it is important to understand that it is not your local Rother District Council that is to blame: they only collect your domestic waste; it is East Sussex County Council (ESCC) who dispose of it. Local District councillors of all political parties have, we are glad to say, now come out strongly against the proposed landfill. It is time now to put further pressure on your County Council and County Councillors.

Many people have already written strong letters of objection to ESCC. If you haven't done so yet, please do so before the deadline of January 15th, 2010. If you need any help, we have published an information sheet explaining how to object and where to send your objections. This is available on our website or by phoning BALI on 07814 895874. Please use this number also If you would like further information or feel you could help BALI or give a donation to our Fighting Fund.

Finally BALI would like to wish all our supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. In 2010, I believe, if we can stay united against this pernicious proposal, we can defeat it and finally remove this dark spectre that has been hanging over our town for so long. But it may be a long hard fight with many battles yet to come.

Nick Hollington

Chairman BALI

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

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

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (2)

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (continued)

Recently, we had good news that the Bexhill Cemetery is to be extended, despite Ibstock's objections and appeals, into the 'four fields' that were claimed to be needed by Ibstock for stockpiling of clay in the event of a landfill. But, reading Ibstock's barrister's case, as BALI was privileged to do, you realise how strongly Ibstock still want to keep an option to landfill their Ashdown site. So they might appeal, or buy other fields, or cope with excess clay in some other ways, given they have strong intention to use Ashdown one day for landfill. I don't think for one minute that they have got together and said 'Well that's it then, we won't have a landfill at Ashdown'. It's far too important to them.

An then, almost out of the blue, reading Rother District's latest Local Development Framework document, I came across a section which, in line with the WLP's vision for the Ashdown site, proposed a 'country avenue' from the Link Road, across the A269 to 'provide the infrastructure essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site'. Clearly, Rother District Council hasn't forgotten about a landfill at Ashdown!

Neither have East Sussex County Council, but they are being more objective in their consideration of future waste disposal in the county than previously. They are looking in the Waste and Mineral Development Framework to reduce landfill as much as possible and they will set about a 'fresh' selection of sites, even including sites that were previously rejected in the Waste Local Plan. But Ashdown will certainly be in the frame; that is clear, especially if the South East Plan is approved(as I believe it will) requiring East Sussex to accept for disposal 1.6 million tonnes of London waste over the period till 2026. The new Newhaven Incinerator will certainly not be able to cope with that as well as East Sussex waste.

I have been working hard these past six months making representations on behalf of BALI to all these plans and frameworks and liaising constantly with all the relevant bodies and key players. We have also been meeting with Ibstock in a good atmosphere, believing that engagement with them does not represent any endorsement of their plans. We must be careful however, that we are not in any sense 'soft-soaped'.

That there is still no 'big news'- of a planning application for instance - lulls most Bexhillians understandably into a false sense of security regarding the Ashdown site. BALI has however, tried not to do much publicity for our cause in the past six months as it were to wake people up. We don't believe it's our role to 'hype up' our case when there is no firm news. It could be counter productive.

However, I believe that in the next six months, something 'big' will break and the media will take it up, quite likely in a major way. The South East Plan will likely be approved and there will be focused attention in the media on where the projected London waste will go. The ESCC Waste and Minerals Development Framework will reach the stage of 'Strategic Site Allocation' and possibly 'site selection', bringing landfill at the Ashdown site up for attention in the same way as previously did the Waste Local Plan. Against this background, Ibstock, faced with declining orders for bricks, might get an offer from a waste contractor that it simply cannot refuse.

When we get wind of something important happening, or certainly at the next stage of the WMDF, we will re-engage our legal consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard to represent us, utilising the funds my colleagues have raised and we have safeguarded for the important fight I am convinced still lies ahead to prevent the devastation that would be caused to the whole of Bexhill by a new landfill in the Ashdown quarries.

To successfully fight a landfill, we will need planning and environmental experts, and, of course, lawyers. These cost money. Without the funds raised by Mike Rosner and his team we couldn't afford to hire them and therefore would have no chance of winning. Even so, we will have a long hard fight on our hands and probably more funds - and certainly more volunteers - will be needed. But this report should end with a big thank you to all those who have raised funds and those who have donated money to our cause, without which we wouldn't be able to move forward in our campaign at all.

Nick Hollington

Chairman BALI

March 2009

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (1)

For me, these past six months as Chairman of BALI have been busy, yet the ordinary Bexhillian could be forgiven for thinking that not much has happened regarding the proposed landfill at Ibstock's Ashdown Brickworks. This is implied because nothing much has been "in the news".
One should remember at these times, and I am always conscious of, the facts that simply don't go away. These are as follows:

1. the Ashdown quarries are large holes in the ground; there are very few of those in East Sussex. They are of huge commercial value.
2. The tendency has been, and still largely is, to use such holes for the landfilling of waste. (Those not so used are Eden-project type exceptions, often because they are 'wrong' for such uses, being chalk pits and / or with risk to ground water.
3. Ibstock is a company which has tended to use its excavated quarries mostly for landfill. It's probably the best and easiest way to bring profit to their shareholders.
4. Landfill in East Sussex is fast running out, with its only two sites left, Beddingham and Pebsham, which are shortly to close.
5. Recycling locally has been greatly increased but 60% of East Sussex waste is still disposed of by landfill.
6. The incinerator at Newhaven will probably not be able to cope with all of East Sussex's waste and certainly not if London waste is sent here as is envisaged in the South East Plan.
7. (Probably most importantly) The Ashdown site has been allocated for the landfilling of waste in the ESCC Waste Local Plan. It is the only such site allocated for landfill in East Sussex.

Ashdown Brickworks site pitcured left:
top) looking west and
below) looking east.

Since the ESCC Waste Local Plan allocated Ashdown for landfill in a sense we have been lucky. Firstly, that the proposal to use Ashdown for landfill hit the time of the 'green revolution' where landfill started to be and is increasingly regarded as the least acceptable way of disposing of waste, largely because of its methane emissions. So there has been a great emphasis both on recycling, which has increased greatly, and on incineration and other means of waste disposal.

Secondly, almost as soon as the Waste Local Plan was passed in February 2006 it became outmoded and work began on a new 'Waste and Minerals Development Framework' for East Sussex, allowing a renewed consideration of the disposal of waste in the county and a fresh selection of suitable sites - though not entirely fresh, as I have recently found out. This process has ground on for several years now and is still incomplete.
Finally, the Link Road has taken much more time than expected to be approved and is, even as I write, still not 100% certain to be built. The biggest disadvantage of the Ashdown Site, as recognised by the Waste Local Plan Inspector, was/ is the transport access and there have not been the developments in the transport infrastructure that were envisaged as necessary at the time of the Waste Local Plan.
But things being slow, or us being so far lucky, does not mean that the prospect of an Ashdown landfill has receded one iota and many times over the past six months I have been reminded that a landfill at Ashdown is still very much in the minds of those who have the power to effect it.