Belbroughton and Fairfield Parish Council
Important Notice to all Residents in Belbroughton, Fairfield and Wildmoor
The Veolia PLC Incinerator Bottom Ash Planning Application
Veolia E.S. (U.K.) Ltd., have submitted a Full Planning Application to Worcestershire County Council seeking to build a permanent Ash Recycling Plant at Western Quarry, close to the Stoneybridge island (A491)
The full application can be viewed on the County Council website at:
http://e-planning.worcestershire.gov.uk/swift/apas/run/wphappcriteria .display Quoting reference 13/000027/CM.
The Western Quarry is an old mineral working site, having as part of the original planning permission (107110/DC5060/5 – B2000/0015) a full restoration plan to return this site back to Green Belt. Veolia seek to overturn this by building an ‘incinerated bottom ash’ (IBA) plant on this site.
IBA is the ash debris from burning household and industrial wastes and is a highly toxic material containing many metals and compounds (7 x more toxic than sewage). The stored ash piles (up to 6 metres high) will have to be sprayed with water and give off an alkaline odour PH11. There will be Noise, Dust and Smell from such a site. A significant number of households are within 200 metres of the site.
Veolia’s tenant Ballast Phoenix Ltd (the proposed operator) intend to import the majority of this waste ash (120,000 tonnes per annum) into Worcestershire from their Shropshire, Battlefields and Staffordshire (Energy from Waste) sites before re-exporting the treated ash around the country. A minimum of 70 HGV’s per day are anticipated for this operation. The treatment of this ash is a ‘secondary recovery process’ which should be located as close as possible to the originating plant – the ‘proximity principle’.
Bromsgrove District Council’s Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework (N.P.P.F.) both regard the Green Belt as land upon which decisions concerning development should be made with special emphasis on sustainability and environmental benefit. In Section 9 of the N.P.P.F. none of the listed exceptions to development within the Green Belt includes this type of activity for the proposed site. This is ‘inappropriate development’ and would bring unnecessary harm to the Green Belt. Veolia we feel have not demonstrated ‘very special circumstances’ for it.
Veolia claims that it has carried out an ‘alternative site assessment’ on 139 sites and that the Sandy Lane site is their chosen site (which Veolia also happen to own ). In doing so Veolia appear to have ignored the recommendations and principles of Worcestershire’s Waste Core Strategy and their alternative site assessment is felt to be flawed.
The application site is within a regionally important water protection zone for the Wildmoor Aquifer which serves some 19,500 households in Bromsgrove. The underlying sandstone strata is highly vulnerable to pollution. The proposed development cannot be connected to a main sewer and all liquid and leachate from the site would have to be removed by tankers. If the site flooded the aquifer could be polluted.
Your Parish Council has commissioned the services of a planning consultant to assist it with drawing up its own letter of objection which will be submitted to the County Council in early July. We however urge you to also write to the County Council with your comments on the Application as your individual letter will count more strongly than any other form of representation.
Please write: to Mr Steven Aldridge, Principal Planner at: Business, Environment & Community Directorate. County Hall, Spetchley Rd., Worcester, WR5 2NP or E mail to SAldridge@worcestershire.gov.uk - BEFORE the 15th July 2016.