Surrey Waste Plan
The Surrey Waste Plan was adopted in May 2008. The county has a statutory duty to produce a plan identifying land suitable for the management of waste from all sectors, municipal, commercial and industrial, construction and demolition, hazardous and agricultural.
The Surrey Waste Plan identifies the following sites as being suitable for incineration, (thermal treatment):-
Clockhouse Brickworks, Capel
Charlton Lane, Shepperton
Martyrs Lane, Woking
Land adjacent to Trumps Farm, Longcross
Land at former airfield, Wisley
Land at Slyfield has been identified as suitable for waste management purposes OTHER than thermal treatment. (We await further development of the Slyfield Area Action Plan).
The Surrey Waste Plan can be viewed/downloaded on the Surrey County Council website. (In due course there will be a Surrey Minerals Plan – this is still ongoing).
Capel incinerator, (Clockhouse brickworks) – the planning application for the 110,000 tonne incinerator proposed can be viewed at www.surreywaste.co.uk. In June CAG, (Capel Action Group) www.capelaction.org.uk launched an action in the High Court challenging SCC’s adoption of the Waste Plan. Consideration of the planning application by the SCC Planning Committee has been deferred several times; the Committee does not now meet until September.
Trumps Farm incinerator, (Longcross, nr Chertsey/Virginia Water) – the application for this 160,000 tonne incinerator is about to be submitted, (website says it has been submitted but details of the application are not yet there). See www.surreywaste.co.uk for further information. On 18th June a public meeting took place and drew attendance of 382. Further information at www.wentworthestate.org.uk and www.virginiawater.co.uk
Transport of residual waste from Surrey to the Allington incinerator – subject to an agreement being reached 100,000 tonnes of Surrey’s waste could be delivered to Allington each year until Surrey’s incinerators are commissioned. The Executive Member for the Environment, Councillor David Harmer, provided this information in June in response to a question asked by Neil Pitcairn on behalf of the Nutfield Conservation Society. Waste could be transported from any of three transfer stations, Epsom, Sunbury and Guildford, (Allington is near Maidstone and the incinerator is sited just off the M20. Guildford to Allington is approximately 54 miles each way). Residents in Nutfield have particular concerns about lorries using the A25 and other non-motorway routes if there are problems with the M25 – no doubt this concern would be shared by other communities along the A25. See next item:
Allington incinerator – last summer, during testing, the furnace linings of this 500,000 tonne incinerator were found to be faulty. The lining has now been stripped off and replaced. According to the latest letter sent to residents on 26th June, ‘performance demonstrations’ are now taking place. Following this the plant will be shut down for a detailed inspection before beginning commercial operations. The steam turbine that will generate electricity is nearing completion and the intention is to deliver power to the Maidstone sub-station by ‘early autumn’. (WRG website is www.kentenviropower.co.uk)
Colnbrook (Lakeside) incinerator – this plant, operated by Grundon/Viridor and sited next to the M25, (opposite Heathrow Terminal 5), was to have opened this year with a capacity of 410,000 tonnes. However, the main building contractor, Japanese company Itochu-Takuma, identified some defects in the plant during testing which has put back the opening date to July 2009. The problems relate to the economiser units, which recover heat from the combustion gases and help to make the plant more energy efficient. (see Grundon, Viridor or Let’s Recycle websites for further information). The plant is due to take waste from Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset.
Surrey County Council
GAIN continues to monitor waste management developments in Surrey and we promote the view that our waste can be managed without resorting to incineration. To this end we take an active interest in the work of the SCC Environment and Economy Select Committee and we scrutinise agenda items relating to waste coming before the SCC Executive. This month both Committees are dealing with waste matters:
Environment and Economy Select Committee – 17th July 2008 Agenda Item ‘Waste Management Update’
You can look at the work of the E & E Select Committee on the Surrey County Council website. This Committee regularly receives presentations on waste matters, reviews progress on achieving government and local targets, questions Officers and reports its comments and views to the SCC Executive.
On 17th July the Committee received a progress report on the implementation of the Waste Disposal Authority Action Plan and the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy. The JMWMS draws together strategies for waste collection by the Boroughs/Districts and disposal by the County Council via its contractor Surrey Waste Management (SITA).
Topics covered, briefly, included Community Recycling Centre development, food waste collections and partnership working within the county – see further details of the latter in the next item. There is no mention of any progress on developing energy producing biological treatments such as In Vessel Composting or Anaerobic Digestion within the County; despite the fact that SCC now recognises that this can make a valuable contribution to reducing landfill tax and avoiding government penalties.
SCC Executive – 23rd July 2008
Memorandum of Understanding – Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy
The Surrey County Council Executive usually meets fortnightly. At the next meeting it is proposed that SCC as the Waste Disposal Authority, (WDA), and the 11 Boroughs/Districts as the Waste Collection Authorities, (WCA’s), enter into a partnership in order to deliver the JMWMS.
Each of the partners will be asked to sign up to the MoU which will ‘set out in simple, non legalistic, terms the way that the partners to The Memorandum will work together on waste management issues’.
The Memorandum will not be legally binding on any member council. Each WCA will appoint one elected Member to serve on The Partnership and SCC will appoint three members. The Partnership will appoint a Chairman and Vice-Chairman from its membership and they will serve for two years.
Meetings will not be open to the public but non-Members of the Partnership may attend by invitation.
The Partnership will be supported by a Senior Waste Officers Group, (SWOG), consisting of one Lead Officer responsible for waste in each Partner Council. SWOG members will elect a Chairman and Vice-Chairman.
Relating to the Business Plan – ‘The Partnership shall consider, develop and approve a five (or three)-year rolling Business Plan with an annual Action Plan with SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timeband) targets with named lead authority/Officer responsibilities for delivery’.
‘The Draft Annual Action Plan shall be prepared and agreed by 30th September each year for further consideration by each Partner and shall be finalized by the following 31st March’.
Development of Source Segregated Food Waste Collections
The Executive will be asked to support the development of segregated food waste collections by the Guildford, Epsom and Ewell and Surrey Heath WCA’s. These three authorities have developed advanced plans for introducing authority-wide schemes commencing in 2009/10. It is proposed that financial support be given to the three Councils for a period of up to three years.
The Executive is also asked to agree that the WDA works with all WCA’s ‘to assess the most cost efficient method of developing countywide segregated food waste collections by 2012. Support for a countywide scheme would be limited to a level, which ensured that there were no additional costs, compared with the alternative cost of landfill’.
GAIN welcomes the development of food waste collections. It is essential that we get polluting biodegradable material out of landfill as quickly as possible and it makes no sense at all to burn left over pizza and cooked vegetables! Biological treatment of segregated food waste offers the potential to produce both energy and marketable high quality compost.
