The Area Board will receive information on the planning proposals arising from changes to Wiltshire's Waste Contract.
Andy Conn, Head of Waste Management, will provide information about Wiltshire Council’s Waste Strategy.
Andrea Pellegram from Hills Waste Solutions will introduce proposals for:
a) Temporary change of use of an existing warehousing building on the Porte Marsh Industrial Estate for a waste transfer station and recycling centre
b) Materials recovery facilities for domestic and commercial/industrial waste, transport and redesigned access at the Lower Compton waste site.
Minutes:
Andy Conn, Head of Waste Management, provided information about Wiltshire Council’s waste strategy:
· Following the formation of a unitary council, Wiltshire’s waste would soon be harmonising the collection of all of the waste across the county. This waste would then need to be managed.
· Hills were one of the two main contractors used by Wiltshire Council.
· Services carried out by Hills for Wiltshire included kerbside collection of recyclates, operation of household recycling centres, collection from local recycling sites, delivery of recycled materials, delivery of waste to energy plant and landfill.
· The duties of Wiltshire Council are to collect and deliver waste safely, avoiding contamination of the environment and ensuring the health and safety of the public and workforce.
· The strategy of Wiltshire Council is to reduce the amount of waste that ends up at landfill sites. This would reduce the negative impact it had on the local environment as well as the global concerns and making better use of resources.
· Landfill tax is currently £56/ton and this would rise to £80/ton in a few years. If Wiltshire Council continued to send the amount of waste to landfill that it did a few years ago, the landfill tax bill would be £16 million per year by 2013.
· Wiltshire Council currently diverted non recycled waste to Slough to be processed.
· Ten years ago Wiltshire Council was sending 80% of its waste to landfill, last year this had been reduced to 37%.
· Wiltshire Council had to provide sites to enable the work to be carried out in a safe location.
Andrea Pellegram from Hills Waste Solutions then delivered information to the meeting about:
· Temporary change of use of an existing warehousing building on the Porte Marsh Industrial Estate for a waste transfer station and recycling centre – an application had been submitted to aid the new collection of plastic and cardboard from October. Lorry movements were intended to use ring roads. The head teacher of the local school had been contacted and did not object to the plans. Consultation had also taken place with local people since May in order to address local concerns.
· Materials recovery facilities for domestic and commercial/industrial waste, transport and redesigned access at the Lower Compton waste site.
This was followed by a question and answer session, which included the following main points:
· A 4.5% increase in light vehicle traffic and an 8% increase in heavy vehicle traffic were predicted overall.
· Lorry routing, timings, driver codes of conduct, speed limits, pedestrian crossings and a new access route for lorries between the Viridor and Hills sites were under consideration.
· While new planning applications had the potential for applying conditions, little could be done regarding past planning applications.
· Proposed opening times for the Porte Marsh Industrial Estate were 7 am until 6 pm on weekdays and 7 am until 1 pm on Saturday. Lorries leave around 7 am and return between 10 am and 2 pm.
· The county’s first mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) plant in Westbury will process approximately 60,000 tons of residual waste once complete in 2013. This should lead to a large reduction in residual waste coming into the site at Lower Compton.
· Concern was raised regarding the strategic vision for the site at Lower Compton, given the MBT plant.
· Concern was raised over air quality with increased lorry movements - Councillor Sturgis assured the meeting the vehicles procured by Wiltshire Council were of the highest quality for emissions.
· The consultation process was criticised for being unclear.
· Disappointment was expressed at the lack of plans to extend the materials that could be recycled at the Honeyball site.
· Hills Waste Solutions had assessed a large number of sites. Building at Stanton St Quinton, closer to the motorway, would not be suitable because the site was too small and not central for collection or convenient for sending material to Westbury.
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Please get in touch with Hills Waste Solutions if you have any suggestions for suitable alternative waste sites.