October 2011

A report on the proposals for a consultation on the draft Waste and Minerals Plan is being considered by East Sussex County Council, Brighton and Hove City Council and the South Downs National Park Authority during the weeks beginning the 10 and 24 October 2011.

If the Authorities agree, public consultation on the documents will begin at the end of October for a period of six weeks.

The reports for the meetings can be found on the Authorities websites:

East Sussex County Council

Brighton and Hove City Council

South Downs National Park - 10 October 2011

South Downs National Park - 25 October 2011

Extract from the ESCC Document

So what is the outcome of our work?

a) Review of land raise areas of search We have investigated further the five areas of search for land raise in the Low Weald identified in the previous plan. This review now indicates that there is no real opportunity to develop a land disposal site in these areas.

b) Reviewing landfill sites in the previous Waste Local Plan. Ashdown Brickworks to the north-west of Bexhill is identified as a landfill site in the existing Waste Local Plan (2006), although no proposals have come forward from the waste industry. It is likely that the site could only be used if the Bexhill Hastings Link Road and other access roads are built. If these go ahead the whole road connection to Ashdown Brickworks will not be available until well into the 2020s when it is anticipated that demand for land disposal will be at a low ebb. So it is not proposed to keep the site specific allocation in the Waste Local Plan.

c) Using landfill sites outside East Sussex, South Downs and Brighton & Hove The previous consultation looked at sites within our own area only. These have been found not to be feasible. In reality, waste moves between areas within the South East and for this reason we have been taking a wider view. There are landfill sites elsewhere which could take our waste in the short term but other solutions are also needed.

d) Preparing for more treatment sites The plan identifies higher rates for recovering materials from waste. We also need to show that it could be possible to treat locally the equivalent amount of waste that will have to be exported out of the area. Sites for new facilities will be considered in a later document after the plan has been adopted but they are likely to be situated near main urban areas and adjoining the main transport links, and existing allocations in the Waste Local Plan will be retained at the present time.

e) Providing for minerals Existing permissions to extract sand and gravel in the east and west of the county will be maintained in the plan. Continued production is supported at existing brickworks and supplies of clay will be safeguarded.

28 July 2011

The Appeal Court today unanimously threw out an attempt by former Tory MP Jacqui Lait to overturn her libel defeat by the Evening Standard.

Three judges, headed by the Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, found that the High Court had been right to reject her claim to have been defamed and rule that the newspaper's defence of "fair comment" was "bound to succeed".

They dismissed her appeal and ordered that the former MP for Beckenham, who stood down at the last election, must pay the legal costs.

...............

She has since made a six-figure capital gain through the taxpayer funding the mortgage on her second home, and has not indicated to date that she intends to repay it. Last year, Mr Justice Eady struck out the original meanings she attributed to the article which she claimed were defamatory.

She was given permission to submit an amended document and the Standard served its defences of justification and fair comment.

Her second attempt was also struck out by Mr Justice Eady in December. He concluded the article plainly meant people might react with anger to her public pronouncement and said that view could be honestly held by some, in the light of her having taken advantage of the old system.

He ruled that the defence of fair comment was bound to succeed and struck out Ms Lait's claim with costs awarded to the Standard.

Today the Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justices Laws and Longmore, all upheld that decision and dismissed her appeal.

External Reference:

Evening Standard - Ex-Tory MP loses appeal over Standard's expenses report

Internal Reference:

ESCC Councillor Peter Jones Wife Jacqui Lait Failed Litigation Against Evening Standard

ESCC Land Raise Councillor Peter Jones and his Wife MP Jacqui Lait

21 July 2011

Purpose

To seek the Lead Member’s approval to now jointly work with the South Downs National Park Authority as well as Brighton & Hove City Council on the Waste & Minerals Core Strategy and to approve a draft revision to the Council’s Minerals & Waste Development Scheme for subsequent publication

RECOMMENDATION: The Lead Member is recommended to:

(1) Agree to the preparation of a joint Waste & Minerals Core Strategy with South Downs National Park Authority and Brighton & Hove City Council;

(2) Approve the draft revisions of the Minerals & Waste Development Scheme; and

(3) Following approval by the South Downs National Park Authority and Brighton & Hove City Council to the revisions to the programmes in the Minerals & Waste Development Scheme, to submit the revised Scheme to Government

Minerals & Waste Development Scheme - New proposed timetable

A Few previous attempts

PREVIOUS ATTEMPT July 2008

PREVIOUS ATTEMPT September 2006

Perhaps someone at ESCC would like to provide the costs (historic & current) for all these attempts at getting it wrong! One trusts that the same personnel who dealt with all the previous failed attemps are not involved with the current new timetable and in fact to go one step futher hopefully they are no longer employed by ESCC otherwise it will be that familiar topic with ESCC - REWARD FOR FAILURE

30 August 2011

Charles Hendry MP has just confirmed that he will be opening RWM in partnership with CIWM on Tuesday 13 September at 10.45am.

Charles will be opening the show with a 20 minute keynote presentation in the Leaders Forum Keynote Theatre covering the following topics:

• The potential for energy from waste

• Changing approaches to waste

• The value of waste to the economy

Come along and hear from Charles and present your questions to him in a question and answer session after his presentation.

Renewable Energy Association (REA) Launches "Back Biomass" Campaign

26 August 2011

Haulaway Limited have applied for planning for change of use to an inert recycling operation (up to 45,000 tonnes pa) for construction and demolition waste

WD/2011/6004/CM

POLEGATE YARD, COLD THORN LANE, HAILSHAM, BN27 3PJ

CHANGE OF USE FROM MORTAR, AGGREGATE AND CONCRETE PLANT YARD AND DEPOT(PART B2 AND B8 USE) TO AN INERT RECYCLING OPERATION (45,000 TONNES PER ANNUM) DRY RECYCLABLES STORAGE AND SKIP STORAGE AREA WITH ACOUSTIC SCREENING BUND(S)

View the details, any objections and decision at - Wealden Planning

A number of companies and interest groups have commented on the waste site proposals - full list in Appendix 5 of the comments published on the ESCC web site

Spring 2011 - Results of the new government decision to carry out a review of waste policies

Because of the government review and the large number of comments received, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) do not expect to publish revised plans until September 2011 - ESCC - Minerals and waste development scheme

It is interesting that ESCC have not accepted the considerable number of objections (current & historic) as sufficient grounds for withdrawing these plans and continue to prevaricate over making a decision

However - East Sussex Annual Monitoring Report 2009/10

5.6 Commercial & Industrial Waste Arisings

Currently the best estimate of C&I arisings is 367,393 tonnes in 2006/07. It is difficult to produce an alternative robust estimate of commercial waste arisings because the quality of data reporting by commercial waste service providers is generally far lower than for the municipal sector.

Attempts by the County Council to survey waste operators to establish a better estimate of arisings have had a low response. However, the Council is working to improve the accuracy of its estimates of C&I waste arisings. Interim results from this new assessment suggest that around 450,000 tonnes of C&I waste were produced in 2008.

Bearing in mind that C&I waste accounts for approximately 62% of all waste produced in the county, surely monitoring is one of the cornerstones of any policy - so why are ESCC making the following statement

'.. the quality of data reporting by commercial waste service providers is generally far lower than for the municipal sector ..'

It is ESCC responsibilty to ensure that monitoring and reporting are up to standard and if they cannot do this then they are failing in the basics and heads should roll

Recycling & Waste Management (RWM) and Chartered Institition of Wastes Management (CIWM) have joined forces

As the review of waste policy in England is fast approaching, we would like to hear how you see the future of waste shaping up. What aspects do you consider as being most important and which policies you would like to see introduced?

YOUR opinions are wanted on the GOVERNMENT REVIEW ON WASTE POLICY. Answer three quick questions here

References:

RWM and CIWM - Exhibition NEC Birmingham

25th January 2011

Community and Environment Scrutiny Committee - Agenda and minutes

Land Raise - Waste & Minerals Core Strategy & Minerals Sites Working Party - Oral Update

Members considered the scoping report which set out a recommended approach to the scrutiny of East Sussex County Council's Waste and Minerals Core Strategy function as requested by Minute 10/09 of the Community and Environment Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 12th July 2010.

Councillor Larkin, Chairman of the Land Raise - Waste & Minerals Core Strategy & Minerals Sites Working Party, gave an oral update to the Committee on the progress of the Working Party. He apologised for not having a written report available and explained that the Working Party had met only once since its formation.

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) held a meeting in December 2010 on Waste Matters and made it clear that they are waiting for further guidance from Central Government on consultation. The Working Party has agreed that a letter be sent to ESCC on its behalf asking for information on County's next stages of the Core Strategy. It was confirmed that the intention of the letter is purely to gather information and will not be raising any issues. It is hoped that the response will allow the Working Party to function with clearer guidance. The letter is currently at draft stage and when the final version has been sent, and a response received and considered by the Working Party, a report will be presented to Committee. The main concern expressed by the Working Party was that they do not undertake work which will involve both Councillor and officer resources, on items which may then be dropped by ESCC.

The Committee discussed the benefits of sending a letter to ESCC asking for information on the further stages and timescale of their Core Strategy and putting the activities of the Working Party being on hold until a response is received.

Resolved

to note the oral update and agree that a draft letter be considered by the Working Party for consideration and feedback, and a final version be sent to ESCC asking for details and a timescale of their consultation phase of the Land Raise - Waste & Minerals Core Strategy & Minerals Sites.

Agenda and Minutes - Wealden District Council Community and Environment Scrutiny Committee 25 January 2011

Also - Agenda and Minutes - Wealden District COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT SCRUTINY COMMITTEE 18th October 2010

Bulletin 13 – January 2011

The REAL Campaign

Residents of East Sussex Against Landraise

To the Councillors of East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council

A Happy and Joyful New Year to You All

This is a time for New Year resolutions and fresh thinking, a time for radical new ideas and exciting new opportunities, a time to be at the forefront of modern technology, BUT what do we find from East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council?

That they do not appear to have listened to our protests, that they have ignored all the information we have gathered for them, that they have also ignored the responses to the consultation process and that they have hidden behind a change in Government and a change in the future policy for waste management and disposal.

As we write this we have been informed by East Sussex County Council that they are currently carrying out surveys of the five areas of search identified for Landraise within the beautiful Low Weald to discover their suitability to dump waste on them.

The only alternative to Landraise they are considering is to export it out of the county.

Why are they not putting pressure on the commercial companies which create the waste to reduce, recycle, and recover energy from their waste? We at REAL, have shown that there is no need for disposal of waste to land.

East Sussex County Council admit that they have no control over where the waste from commercial and construction and demolition waste goes to and yet they are quite happy to provide Greenfield sites for it to be disposed on.

Now is the time to start discussions with these companies, and put pressure on them to invest in the new technologies. DO NOT allow them the easy option by providing them with Greenfield land to dispose waste on and let us get rid of the need for land disposal once and for all.

It is time to get REAL and say NO to LANDRAISE on GREENFIELD sites

Letter from Councillor Matthew Lock to THE REAL CAMPAIGN (09 February 2011)

Sussex Express - 07 February 2011

WEALDEN residents fear the spectre of exposed rubbish tips is once again stalking the countryside.

Members of Residents of East Sussex Against Landraise (REAL) say sites earmarked in early documents are still being surveyed for their suitability by East Sussex County Council.

The sites identified for Landraise – 25 metre high, 25 hectare exposed dumps – are at Newick, Piltdown, Selmeston, Hellingly, Halland Park Farm and Deanland near Golden Cross.

REAL spokeswoman Jean Mary Crozier said: “They do not appear to have listened to our protests, have ignored responses to the consultation process and hidden behind changes in Government and future policy for waste management and disposal.

“And they say the only alternative to Landraise they are considering is exporting it out of the country.”

She asks why they are not putting pressure on commercial companies to reduce, recycle and recover energy from the waste they create.

Fellow campaigners point out County admit they have no control over where waste from commercial and demolition waste goes to yet are happy to provide greenfield sites for it to be dumped on.

Norman Baker MP told the Express: “East Sussex County Council should not be pursuing a policy of Landraise. It was established last year that this is not wanted locally and they need to realise that.

“I have made my position very clear in the past – this is a 16th century solution to a 21st century problem and mountains of rubbish in the countryside would be unacceptable. That wholeheartedly remains my view.”

A County Council spokesman said “We have listened to the views of local residents and we are now carrying out a review of the need for land disposal, focusing much of our work on finding alternatives to it.

“As part of that work, we are reviewing our appraisal of the Areas of Search using information that was submitted during the consultation on our draft strategy. This is essential to make sure our plans will stand up to the scrutiny of the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

“However, we must stress that we fully share the Government’s aspiration to ‘move away from disposal of waste by landfill.”

Survey sparks rubbish tip fears for Wealden residents

Comment

It is a matter of trust and clearly the residents of East Sussex have very little faith in their public servants to perform the wishes of the people rather than adhering to their own agenda

Letter from Councillor Matthew Lock to THE REAL CAMPAIGN (09 February 2011)