Public Examiner sends North Yorkshire County Council back to consult!

The Public Examination reached day two and there have been significant developments. Examiner Mr King has been reviewing North Yorkshire County Council’s (NYCC) Waste Core Strategy. He requires clear evidence that the plan being proposed is well researched and thought out. This evidence does not appear to be forthcoming!

See Critics claim council waste strategy in tatters

In short the Examiner on Wednesday 24th September 2008 decided he was unlikely, over the full course of 7 days, to be happy with the evidence presented by North Yorkshire Waste team and has asked them ‘to consider their position’.

The background to this is that NYCC were warned at the preparatory meeting that the Examiner had serious concerns which needed addressing. NYCC were warned of this again on the first day. In the evidence certain key points were made clear:

• The Council had not had a single face to face meeting with counterparts in adjoining authorities to consider what plans they were pursuing for waste sites and technologies or where they might be located
• The Council had no clear information on the industrial waste disposal capacities or recycling routes and capabilities within its own boundaries and had conducted no face to face meetings with private operators who manage 91% of waste in North Yorkshire
• The Council had not held any face to face meetings with the statutory consultees eg Highways Agency, Natural England, etc.
• We presented a logical and convincing case that the NYCC had ignored consistent public consultation results which showed deep concerns against incineration and the imposition of a single large site on one local community since 2001 through the district authorities and York City consultations.
• DISC also made a case against the sustainability assessment – which has now been admitted by NYCC as being incomplete.
• The strategy assessments were weighted differently without any clear logic or evidence to support the methodology. Sites had been considered but rejected without records as to reasons why. Options which had been reviewed thoroughly were put together but not subjected to further review in their new combined size and scale.
• The examiner explained that far more serious issues lay ahead which the meeting had not yet discussed at all.

Mr King had also brought to light a very long list of minor issues which all cumulatively served to undermine the competence of the strategy and therefore in the light of these circumstances asked for the Council to withdraw and consider its next actions.

There is now to be a meeting for November 11th 10:00 am at County Hall for about two hours where the Council team will be given one final chance to address these issues. No new work will be permitted and they must produce all evidence that was expected during the Examination. If they are unable to prove that these are mere presentational shortcomings then the plan will be rejected totally -including the Minerals strategy.

Where will this leave us?
1. The Council will have lost 2-3yrs in the process
2. The site allocation will start again as part of a new plan (not the old plan rehashed)
3. Any attempt to develop sites such as Dalton will have any no Council support in policy or strategy other than those existing agreed policies and the status quo will apply until new strategies are agreed.
4. A completely new plan will be required as the old one has been rejected. The Council cannot revisit a plan.

DISC is calling for as many supporters as possible to attend on November the 11th at 10:00am at County Hall, Northallerton.

DISC’s supporters have followed the process laid out by Government and this is the final stage of this process for testing local authority plans for their community. David Andrews, Chairman of DISC, says:

The process we have seen was fair, very solid and thoroughly trustworthy. The failure of the NYCC Core strategy will highlight to all other authorities the importance of thorough and honest preparation of plans such as these and the perils of poor attention to detail and we therefore urge you very strongly to clear your diary and attend on the 11th of November. As soon as you know you can attend please e-mail us to confirm. We would like to advise numbers to the Council as soon as possible to show the massive interest in this. An e-mail confirming your attendance is good enough.