Unveiled at the Oxford Town Hall this week, the draft strategy – entitled 'No Time to Waste' – proposes a “radical change in the way waste is managed in the South East”.
 Friends of the Earth have criticised the lack of publicity surrounding the strategy consultation |
Over 29 million tonnes of waste is produced in the South East of England, with about 4 million tonnes being imported from London. The Assembly estimates that on current rates, this figure will grow by over 20% in the next 20 years.
The new strategy will formally cover the period up to 2016, although it will look ahead to 2026 and beyond.
Commenting on the new strategy, Councillor Keith Mitchell, chairman of the Assembly's Regional Planning Committee, said: “We need a rapid change in individual attitudes to waste and the way we manage it in the South East. We are running out of landfill sites, we are throwing away natural resources and are at risk of incurring high financial penalties from both the British government and the European Union if we fail to meet their new waste targets.”
The consultation is seeking views from the public on two options:
- to exceed Government and European targets on re-use and recovery or:
- to meet Government and European targets but not surpass them.
The first option – the “preferred option” – would mean more waste management facilities built in a quicker time period than the second. But it would also mean more planning headaches. Once the consultation is complete, the revised overall regional strategy is expected to be published in 2004.
Cllr Mitchell explained: “To help cope with our increasing waste problems we need to create a large number of new waste facilities. These will mostly need to be relatively small scale and built quickly. This new strategy sets a regional planning framework for these new developments and advises that sites need to be built close to where people live, even if this sometimes means using green belt land.”
Criticism
Pressure group Friends of the Earth has immediately criticised the Assembly for not doing enough to promote the consultation of the new strategy and called for a “genuine widespread public consultation on the document”.
 Provisional recovery targets set out for both options of the strategy consultation |
The group put out a statement warning: “The Assembly is not planning to widely publicise the strategy to communities across the South East. The launch in Oxford is the only opportunity the public have of finding out more about the strategy other than it being placed on the Assembly's website.”
Speaking at the launch of the strategy, Friends of the Earth national waste campaigner Anna Watson said: “The South East does have a huge problem with waste and this strategy attempts to deal with it in a sustainable way. But the region will need higher recycling targets and a clear strategy for reducing waste to prevent a rash of incinerators across the region.”
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