Home counties welcome North London ruling

Planning authorities outside of London have welcomed the ruling that north London boroughs must discuss the North London Waste Plan with them.

Last week planning inspector Andrew Mead found that the north London boroughs had not engaged with planning authorities outside of the capital.

In particular two organisations, the South East Waste Planning Advisory Group (SEWPAG) and East of England Waste Technical Advisory Body (EoEWTAB), should have been consulted.

The North London Waste Plan is being drawn up jointly by the London Boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest. Its purpose is to set out the policies for determining planning applications for waste facilities and to identify sufficient sites for waste management use in the area.

The issue of consultation and engagement was brought to a head by the 2011 Localism Act which required councils to discuss constructively waste, as well as other planning issues, which could impact on other local authorities.

Deborah Sacks, convenor of SEWPAG, said she believed an agreement could be reached between the regional bodies and the North London councils.

She said: This is a big deal and we are itching to talk to them. We have our data and we would like more discussion.

There are important issues to talk about especially as authorities outside of London have made provision to take in waste from the capital. And, we are looking at a picture where we will see waste movements, possibly with Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex having less landfill space and London waste being sent more to landfills in Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes and Bletchley.

And, Ms Sacks said there was also a need for the Mayor of London to ensure that he was engaging with authorities outside of London when planning policies are made.

Looking ahead, Ms Sacks said it was likely that bilateral agreements could be reached with the north London councils. We are looking at this positively and we completely understand the difficulties.

Disappointed

Reacting to the Inspectors ruling, the north London boroughs said they were disappointed with the decision.

A spokesman for the North London Waste Plan said: We are disappointed that the Inspector has not supported our position on the Duty to Co-operate. This means further delay and further stages for the waste plan before we can get the waste plan back to an examination.

There is still a need for a waste plan for North London that will enable the area to take more responsibility for managing its own waste. We are actively considering how best to proceed in the light of the Inspectors decision.

Procurement

A procurement exercise is currently underway for waste treatment infrastructure for the local authorities and is being handled by the North London Waste Authority. A spokesperson for the NLWA explained that the procurement process would continue.

The authority said: The North London Waste Authority acknowledges the Inspectors recent announcement on the North London Waste Plan. We will make a further announcement on our intentions once we have considered the matter with the Authoritys Members. In the meantime we continue with our ongoing procurement process for contracts to provide sustainable, cost-effective solutions for dealing with north Londons waste.

It added: In the near future North London must develop a new waste treatment infrastructure that will allow us to increase recycling and recover as much value as possible from non-recyclable waste. Continuing to send significant volumes of waste to landfill sites outside of London is not an option if we are to keep waste disposal costs as low as possible and meet our environmental ambitions.