Archived press release

Date Published: 13/08/07

Aylesbury Vale District Council has raised a number of concerns about Buckinghamshire County Council’s latest proposals for future waste management. Cabinet members considered the council’s response to the proposed Waste Development P...

Aylesbury Vale District Council has raised a number of concerns about Buckinghamshire County Council’s latest proposals for future waste management.

Cabinet members considered the council’s response to the proposed Waste Development Plan Document (WDPD) for Buckinghamshire at a meeting this week.

The WDPD sets out a framework for how the 2.3 million tonnes of waste produced by households and businesses in the county each year can be responsibly managed. Around 270,000 tonnes of that total is household waste.

Buckinghamshire County Council has to find sites in the county for new or improved waste processing facilities that could be developed by 2021. Technical assessment has helped identify potential locations for household waste recycling, composting, waste transfer, materials recovery and energy from waste facilities.

Some of the possible sites for waste facilities are located in Aylesbury Vale. However, whilst supportive of the need to find solutions, the district council has identified a number of flaws in the initial proposals and will not actively support all the plans in their current form.

College Road North, near Aston Clinton, has been allocated as a preferred location for a number of waste facilities, including an Energy from Waste (EfW) plant. The district council has identified a number of inconsistencies in the site appraisal that need to be looked at. Land earmarked for new employment development would also be lost if the county council was granted planning permission to build new waste facilities on the proposed site as currently defined.

Calvert is another preferred location for major waste treatment facilities but AVDC also has reservations about this site. The council is concerned about how much more waste the existing landfill site can take, and what impact it will have on the wider area if it is to be used for composting, landfill and energy from waste treatment. The line of the proposed link road from Calvert to the A41 must also be identified before the council can consider the site further.

There are also four ‘safeguarded’ areas within Aylesbury Vale that are under consideration. The council has a number of concerns about the sites identified at Woodham, Long Crendon, Haddenham and Winslow.

The old landfill site at Woodham, which has been closed for some years, is seen as unsuitable because major work would need to be carried out to allow any development. There is also no existing landfill capacity on the site so any end products from the waste facilities would need to be taken off site for disposal.

Sites in Long Crendon and Haddenham are not considered appropriate for major waste treatment facilities as they are existing employment sites. Although the general need for a waste facility in Winslow is recognised, the site which is currently proposed by the county council must be safeguarded for future use for the proposed railway station and for identified employment land.

AVDC does back plans for an enhanced household waste recycling centre in Buckingham, subject to detailed proposals. The current waste site in the town is too small to provide the full range of facilities that are needed to maximise recycling and to potentially allow for restricted amounts of recyclable trade waste to be dealt with.

Councillor Sue Polhill, Cabinet Member for Planned Development, said: “We support and encourage renewable forms of energy and are committed to promoting recycling and reducing the amount of waste going into landfill. However, the current waste management proposals raise many environmental and planning concerns.

“We must have more dialogue with the county council on all the issues we have raised so that we may progress this project. Whilst appreciating that this is an early stage in the process, the need for further information and certainty about the sites to be allocated, and the facilities to be put on them, is essential for both the council and local residents.” 

Any comments received during the current consultation period will be fed into the next stage of the Waste Development Plan process.