Inspector says no to landfill at brickworks
Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration committee members celebrating government inspector upholding Ashdown Brickworks should not be included for landfill in waste plan
ANTI-LANDFILL campaigners in Bexhill are celebrating after a government inspector upheld a decision not to incorporate the town into a future plan for managing waste.
Government inspector Susan Holland was appointed by the Secretary of State to review the East Sussex, South Downs and Brighton and Hove Waste and Minerals Plan and has just published her report.
The plan sets out local authorities’ strategy for dealing with waste and recycling in the region for the next 15 years.
Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration (BALI) has long campaigned against an idea in which the Ashdown Brickworks site in Turkey Road could be used for landfill.
In this latest version of the plan, Ashdown Brickworks was deleted, and the inspector upheld this decision.
In her report, Susan Holland said: “There is very little existing capacity, and no suitable new sites for landfill or landraise within the Plan area even to provide the need for disposal of waste generated within the Plan itself.
“There is no historical basis for the import of London waste for landfilling in East Sussex; neither the rail network nor the road network is suitable for transporting waste from London.”
This in effect means a conclusion of no possible means of providing landfill facilities at Ashdown Brickworks.
The reasons for this were:
• Inadequacies of the surrounding road network to provide environmentally acceptable road access at a viable rate of fill
• An assumption that landfill waste will decrease after 2016 due to increased recycling and incineration at sites such as the MRF at Newhaven.
• Effects of Government’s landfill tax
• Clay extraction in large quantities is required at the site and the inspector felt this has not been demonstrated.
Colin Bennett, chairman of BALI, said: “In essence the Ibstock site at Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road is not saved within the Plan as a potential landfill site. This means that BALI has succeeded in its campaign to prevent Ashdown Brickworks from being identified for formal landfill use. We the committee thank all our members and others for their support throughout our lengthy (10-year) campaign.”
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 15 C
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