In the week after the city signed the Zero Waste charter (see letsrecycle.com story), a special planning meeting of the Milton Keynes Council is expected to reject the proposal by Shanks for an integrated waste facility.
Shanks had been applying to build a 160 million plant on their landfill site that would handle around 350,000 tonnes of waste a year. But letsrecycle.com has learned that councillors are being advised by officers to reject the proposal on a number of grounds.
 An artists' impression of the proposed facility |
A council document states that the development would “encourage the importation of untreated waste from London and other regions in the vicinity of the site”. It also says that “with the information currently to hand, it appears that the proposal would dominate parts of Bletchley and would, therefore, have a damaging effect on the visual amenity and subsequently the economic and social fabric of the area”.
According to the document, insufficient information had been provided to the council to show that the facility would be the Best Practical Environmental Option. The document also stated that the proposal had not adequately addressed the effects on land drainage, surface and waste water disposal, existing water courses, land stability and landfill gas.
Councillors have also been warned that the proposal would “require works to be carried out during night time hours which, potentially, will cause disturbance to local residents neighbouring the application site.”
The recommendation to refuse the facility is based on the application “as currently proposed”, and it is not yet known whether Shanks would return with another proposal after any rejection.
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