Your questions answered
Is there definitely going to be an Incinerator
at Mountfield? (short answer)
Is there definitely going to be an Incinerator
at Mountfield? (more detail)
Why should I be worried about the plan to build an
incinerator at Mountfield?
What is the Proximity Principle, and why is it so
important?
Why does the Mountfield Heritage Group need to raise
money?
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Is there definitely going to be an
Incinerator and waste-sorting site at Mountfield (short answer)?
No, there is everything to play for and if
we fight it we can win.
Like all other councils, East Sussex is under an obligation
to produce a "Waste Local Plan" - a planning
document setting out how waste should be dealt with in the
county. East Sussex decided to produce a joint Waste
Local Plan with Brighton and Hove Council.
The second draft of this plan was issued in 3rd April 2002
for a 6-week public consultation. So many objections
were received (almost a national record) that the
council was still analyzing them in August 2002.
Eventually the council decided that despite the huge number
of objections the plan should not be changed.
What
has happened so far is that the Council has voted in favour of putting this in
the next draft of the Local Waste
Plan.
On 1st November
2000 this
draft of the Local Waste
Plan was published (or "put on deposit" to
use the official jargon, thus it is called the "Deposit Draft of the Waste
Local Plan"). The period for registering public objections ran from
1st November 2000 to 12th December 2000. There will then be a revised
draft of the plan and a second objection period and then (probably in the
summer of 2002) there will be a Public Inquiry at
which the objections will be heard by a Government Inspector.
The Mountfield Heritage Group will be
opposing the incinerator and waste-sorting plant very vigorously at the Public Inquiry. We will be getting professional help from planning consultants;
this is the main reason we need to raise money.
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Is there definitely going to be an
Incinerator and waste-sorting site at Mountfield (more detail)?
No, there is everything to play for and if
we fight it we can win.
What
has happened so far is
East Sussex County Council needs to identify suitable sites, within the
county, for waste reclamation and incineration plants.
It needs to identify these sites in order to include them in their
"Waste Local Plan", which they have to produce.
One possible site for a plant for both reclamation and incineration is
the existing Gypsum Mine at Mountfield, near Robertsbridge.
However, following detailed analysis of the pros and cons of the
various sites by council officials from East Sussex County Council (including
the Director of Transport and Environment) and from Brighton & Hove Council
(including the Director of Environmental Services), they concluded that
Mountfield was not their preferred option and an existing waste treatment
plant at Pebsham (between Bexhill and Hastings) should be the recommended site
instead. This recommendation was
made by council officials, who are paid employees of the council and owe their
jobs to their expertise in Planning.
Despite these clear recommendations from Council officials in favour of
Pebsham, a special Joint Strategic Planning Advisory Committee of both Councils
met on 19th November 1999 and a majority decided to overturn the recommendation
and select Mountfield, not Pebsham, as the site for a
combined waste incineration and recycling plant.
This decision was made by councillors, voting on political grounds.
This issue was considered at a full East Sussex County Council meeting on
15th December 1999. This meeting
decided to go along with the decision of the Joint Strategic Advisory Committee
and overturn the recommendation of their own expert officials.
On 1st November
2000 this
draft of the Local Waste Plan was published (or "put on deposit" to
use the official jargon, thus it is called the "Deposit Draft of the
Waste Local Plan"). The period for registering public objections
ran from 1st November 2000 to 12th December 2000. Over 50,000 separate
comments (virtually all of them objections) were received during this
consultation period. There will then be a
revised draft of the plan, another consultation period, and then (probably in
the summer of 2002) there will be a Public Inquiry
at which the objections will be heard by a Government Inspector.
For the Public
Inquiry, a Local Plan Inspector will be appointed.
He is a member of the Local Planning Inspectorate (an official government
body). It is his job to consider
the proposed plan, to look into all the objections received, hold an inquiry (the Local Plan
Inquiry), and produce a report on his findings
Before the Local Plan
Inquiry starts, the Local Plan Inspector will
normally try to negotiate with people who have objected to the plan to see if
the plan can be modified to meet their objections. If this happens, and the council modifies its proposed plan,
objectors get an opportunity to alter their objections, or withdraw them, or
pursue them at the Local Public Inquiry.
Local Public
Inquiry. The inquiry is held in public and considers all the objections made during the
consultation period. Anyone who has
submitted an objection has the right to give evidence in person at the Public Inquiry
but they don’t have to – the Inspector will take their objections
into account anyway. The Mountfield
Heritage Group will be making a detailed objection, and will be represented at
the Local Public Inquiry by a planning expert. To have the best chance of
winning we need to pay good money. This
is why we need money – its our best chance of defeating the plan.
Local Plan Enquiries normally takes many weeks or months, so all
we can say at the moment is that it will possibly take place some time in the
summer of 2002.
The Local Plan Inspector produces his report on the proposed plan.
This report will state how the Inspector thinks the plan ought to be
modified. This report normally takes a few months to produce, so it
might come out some time towards the end of 2002.
The Council then decides how to modify the plan in the light of the
Inspector’s recommendations. Out
of this comes a new version of the plan. Councils
are not absolutely obliged to follow the inspectors recommendations, but they
usually do, because life can get quite difficult if they don’t.
In any case, the public then has the right to object to the new version
of the plan (another 6-week consultation period).
We can object to any new or changed parts of the plan; we can object to
the fact that the Council has not modified the plan where the Inspector said
that it should, but we cannot simply re-raise the original objections again.
At a rough guess, we might reach this stage some time in 2003.
It’s possible, but not likely, that a second inquiry could be held
arising out of the objections at this stage
The Council then decides and votes on, the “Final” version of the
plan.
If (as we intend to ensure) the Local Plan Inspector recommends against
the recycling and incineration plant but despite this the Council puts
incineration at Mountfield into their plan, we can try and get the Secretary of
State for the Environment to use his powers.
The Secretary of State has the power to force the Council to change the
plan if the plan goes against government policy or against the Local Plan
Inspector’s recommendations. This
is why it’s so important for us to get the right result out of the Public Inquiry, and to make the point that the present plan breaks the ‘Proximity
Principle’ (that waste should be dealt with as close as possible to where it
is produced.) which is a key part of government policy for waste.
The Secretary of State also has the power to “call in” the whole
plan, effectively taking the whole decision out of the Council’s hands.
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questions
Why should I be worried about the plan to build an
incinerator at Mountfield?
Four main reasons
·
Traffic
·
The chimney itself
·
The emissions from the chimney
·
The noise and the smell
Traffic. We
estimate that 100,000 lorry-miles per year will be generated. They will
converge on Mountfield via the A21 and A2100
The chimney. The building of a huge chimney,
probably between 190 and 290 feet high (60 – 90 meters), in the middle of an
Area of Outstanding Natural beauty.
The emissions from the chimney: the
effect on farms, the atmosphere and health.
It may well be your biggest reason for objecting to the incinerator, but
we have to be careful about how we raise the emissions issue.
Whatever we may think, the people who make the decision will take the
view that if it follows the latest EU guidelines in its design (which naturally
it will) then it’s safe enough. And
if we did succeed in getting emissions taken into consideration, then its
an argument in favour of putting the incinerator at Mountfield rather
than Pebsham.
The noise and the smell.
Don't forget, it would be a
waste-sorting plant as well: all the rubbish will be opened and combed through
prior to being incinerated or taken away again for other processing.
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What is the Proximity Principle, and why is it so
important?
This is the principle that waste should be dealt with as
close as possible to the place that it is produced. The purpose of this policy is not only to minimize the
pollution and energy use caused by transporting waste, but also “to raise awareness in local communities that the waste they produce is a
problem with which they must deal”. As
Adam Nicholson points out, for Bexhill and Hastings to have their rubbish
trucked eight or ten miles away to a giant incinerator they will never see and
dumped in the middle of a woody part of Sussex is not going to do very much to
raise their awareness.
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I don’t live in Mountfield.
Why should I worry?
If you live in Netherfield, you should
worry.
The incinerator and materials recovery facility will be as near to
Netherfield as they are to Mountfield. And
the height of the chimney will probably be just high enough to bring the top up
to nose-level in Netherfield.
If you live within 10 miles of
Mountfield, you should worry.
If you live near the A21 or the A2100,
you should worry. Are these roads busy enough already, or do you think
it would be nice if they had some more lorries on them?
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Why does the Mountfield Heritage Group need to
raise money?
Mainly, so that we can pay for a planning expert and
barrister to represent us at the Local Plan Inquiry.
The fact is we’re much more likely to get a
favorable
result if we can get some help from someone with real expertise in planning, and
be represented by someone who really knows the best way of winning this type of
case.
But it will be expensive.
Overall we need to raise about £20,000.
So far we have raised about £10000.
So look out for more begging letters, fetes, jumble sales, and all sorts
of fund-raising activities.
Please send
a donation now
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Want to ask a
question that's not listed here?
Want to ask a
question that's not listed here? Just click on one of the links below and
e-mail your question to Andrew.Wedmore@riverhall.co.uk
or noincinerator@mountfield.net
(please
don't use both addresses or I'll get your messages twice)
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