Planning Inspectorate approves Surrey Waste Plan

The plan lays out the sites suitable for managing Surrey's annual 3.3 million tonnes of waste, including the 57% originating from construction and demolition, 24% from commerce and industry and 19% from the municipal sector.

Planners within Surrey county council will now be able to consider applications for waste facilities against the Waste Plan.

The plan has been developed over the last four years, with an examination in public held last year. Reporting back on the examination, the Planning Inspectorate said the plan was legally sound, provided its recommendations for a few minor changes were included.

The changes include the deletion of a few sites suggested for waste management facilities. However, the inspectors approved seven sites for new civic amenity sites, 14 sites for general waste management use and five sites for thermal treatment – incineration.

Any facilities to be developed at sites now given approval by the planning inspectorate would have to go through the full planning process, the county council explained.

On the municipal side, the Plan's approval will bring some relief to the county council and its waste contractor SITA UK, and could reinvigorate a PFI contract that has been slowed by planning difficulties for proposed new facilities.

Commenting on the planning report, Cllr Peter Martin, Surrey county council's executive member for the environment, said: “We are pleased this independent inspectors' report has found the Surrey Waste Plan to be sound. It supports the county council's needs, as the waste disposal authority, to develop advanced technologies to treat household waste that cannot be reused or recycled and to find sustainable solutions to managing Surrey's waste.

“We are still considering the implications of the report for individual sites and, of course, any sites taken forward will still be subjected to the normal planning processes and scrutiny,” he added.

Proviso

One proviso to the planning inspectors' report is that Surrey county council does not agree with two of the sites the inspectors recommended as suitable for thermal treatment. Officers believe incineration would not be appropriate for sites at Wisley and Martyrs Lane.

Although the county council can confirm that no incinerator will be developed on its behalf at these sites, it is concerned that a third party or merchant facility could be proposed for the sites and be supported by the planning inspectorate report.

Cllr Martin said: “This decision contradicts our proposal to remove the two sites as appropriate for thermal treatment following our legal requirement to carry out a Habitat Directive Assessment. I should make clear that regardless as to how this issue is resolved the county council does not have plans to build thermal treatment facilities at Wisley or Martyrs Lane.”

Next steps

Small-scale waste management facilities could still be developed at sites other than those listed within the Waste Plan, but major waste facilities are likely to be granted permission only at the listed locations.

Facilities could be proposed either by a private company or by SITA-subsidiary Surrey Waste Management on behalf of the county council.

One project has already entered the planning process, a 110,000 tonne-per-annum capacity incinerator for a former quarry site at Capel in the Mole Valley district. Forming a cornerstone of the PFI contract, if planning permission is granted construction could start in 2009 for a 2011 operational start.

Prospects

The county has identified a site at Trumps Farm, Longcross as its preferred site for a second incinerator to serve the north of the county, and a planning application is now expected in 2008.

A third site at Charlton Lane, Shepperton, named by planning inspectors as suitable for a small thermal plant is unlikely to be used for that purpose according to the council.

Elsewhere, the county council said three sites have the potential to house in-vessel composting facilities – at Earlswood Depot in Redhill, and Randalls Road, Leatherhead, as well as Slyfield Industrial Estate, Guildford, where an anaerobic digestion plant might be used as well or instead to deal with kitchen and garden waste. However, proposals for such projects have not yet come forward.