Agenda item

Andy Conn, Head of Waste Management – Wiltshire Council (WC), and Andrea Pellegram, Hills Waste Solutions, delivered information on the planning proposals arising from the changes to Wiltshire’s Waste Contract as follows:

Andy Conn

·         One of the sites included within the consultation document is the Castledown Business Park.

·         Hills had proposed to develop a Waste Transfer site at Castledown Business Park.

·         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 WC.

·         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 WC 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 WC is to reduce the amount of waste that ends up at landfill sites.  Thus reducing the negative affect it had on the local environment as well as the global concerns, and making better use of resources.

·         Landfill tax is currently £56/ton this will rise to £80/ton in just a few years.  If WC 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.

·         WC currently diverted non recycled waste to Slough to be processed.

·         Ten years ago WC was sending 80% of its waste to landfill, last year this had been brought down to 37%.

·         WC had to provide sites to enable the work to be carried out in a safe location.

·         The proposed site at Castledown would enable the work to be carried whilst meeting the three key needs, which are safe management of waste, reduction of landfill and efficient bulking and delivery of recyclables and non-recycled waste.

·         The sites at Thorny Down and Everleigh would need to be replaced as they did not meet current standards and were not expected to be in use after 2016.

Andrea Pellegram 

• Changes in the WC waste collection service would see all households moving to a fortnightly plastic bottle and cardboard collection in addition to the current collection of paper, cans, glass, foil, clothes and shoes.  A new county-wide green waste collection service will be available, more waste will be recycled and less landfilled and the waste-related carbon footprint will be reduced.
• In addition to the service changes, there is an identified shortfall in the handling capacity for industrial and commercial waste in the county.
• Hills Waste Solutions’ response to the service changes is to increase the capacity for recycling all types of waste to reduce the amount landfilled to reduce the number of lorries used to transport waste between the point where it is collected and finally managed and to make sure there is sufficient capacity to handle all the waste types when the new collections are started by the council.

·         Hills Waste Solutions had considered a number of alternative sites before choosing the Castledown Business Park site.

·         Solstice Park was Hills first choice and they were negotiating with the landowner when they decided to sell the land to another company and it was no longer available.

The proposal:

• Incoming refuse collection vehicles and kerbsiders run by Wiltshire Council (recyclate and residual waste)

• A very small number of incoming commercial vehicles from a local area

• Sorting materials in bays inside the building

• Loading onto larger trucks for onward shipment to other management facilities

• 28,000 square feet  (approximately)

• 1.9 acres (approximately)

• 30 jobs (approximately) most transferring in

• The whole building would be contained.  The waste would be stored in bays, which when full would be taken by a lorry to various locations.

·         The planned development would take up a small proportion on the site and is some distance from the Wellington Academy.

·         Hills had hired an architect to produce the best design possible which would include doors to prevent odour.

·         Consultants had also been hired to look at any concerns which may arise during the pre application consultation stage, with the aim of addressing those concerns prior to submitting the planning application.

·         It was currently expected that the operational hours would be from 7.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday and from 7.00am to 12.30pm on Saturdays.  Peak hours would be between 1.30pm to 3.00pm.