Saturday, 18 June 2011

16 June Muswell Hill Haringey Area Forum: Pinkham Way

Link to message read out from Lynne Featherstone MP, at the start of the meeting, here.


Muswell Hill, Alexandra, Fortis Green and Highgate Area Forum and Committee,
16 June 2011 (details)


PINKHAM WAY - OUTLINE PLANNING APPLICATION FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY AND VEHICLE DEPOT


Presentation by Marc Dorfman, Assistant Director, Planning, Regeneration & Economy, Haringey

CONTENTS
(1) The Planning Application - Process and Timescales
(2) The Proposed Development
(3) Relationship with the North London Waste Plan

[Our comments have been added to the original text, in red italic below.]



(1) The Planning Application - Process and Timescales

(1.1) The Planning Application
  • Joint Outline Planning Application from North London Waste Authority (NLWA) and Barnet Council received on 31 May 2011
  • The Outline Planning Application is supported by a number of technical documents, including:
    • Environmental Statement
    • Transport Assessment
    • Flood Risk Assessment
    • Design & Access Statement
    • Sustainability & Energy Assessment
    • Health Impact Assessment
  • Final stage of process is for Outline Planning Application to be validated by Planning Service

(1.2) Consultation
  • Following validation, the application will be placed on our planning website www.haringey.gov.uk/planning-search for public inspection
  • Formal consultation period until Oct 2011 – extended due to high levels of public interest
  • Approx. 18,000 consultation letters will be sent out to local households, businesses, Cllrs and statutory consultees (e.g. the Mayor of London), so they are made fully aware of the proposals for the Pinkham Way site
  • Public meeting (Development Management Forum) to be held in early September in Haringey, where residents can raise issues of concern.  
[Our comment: It was stated that these meetings were also now to be held in Barnet and Enfield, although it is not immediately clear - under the Planning Acts - which ‘local planning authority’ (borough) is actually carrying these out, and considering responses from them.]
    Once the consultation opens, there are three ways in which you can send us your responses and feedback:
    Pinkham Way Application Team
    Planning, Regeneration and Economy
    639 High Road
    Tottenham, N17 8BD

    (1.3) Timescales for determining application
    • Validation of Outline Planning Application - currently being undertaken
    • Formal consultation - anticipated to be from end of June to October 2011
    • Development Management Forum - early September
    • Planning Committee Decision - November 2011 at the earliest
    • Call-in by the Mayor of London could follow Planning Committee as Pinkham Way is deemed as being of 'strategic importance' to London.
    [Our comment: After the Mayor, there could technically be a public inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate, if the Department for Communities and Local Government then 'calls the scheme in'. However, this did not happen with the £4.5-billion Brent Cross retail, office, housing, and incinerator scheme, and will not realistically happen here, either.]



    (2) The Proposed Development

    (2.1) Location of Proposed Development


    (2.2) The Outline Application Proposal

    (Click to enlarge)



    (3) Relationship to North London Waste Plan

    (3.1) Introduction

    The North London Waste Plan (NLWP) sets out:
    • A range of suitable sites for the future management of north London's waste up to 2017, and
    • Policies and guidelines for determining planning applications for waste developments
     The NLWP is needed because of:
    Climate Change Landfill creates methane and is waste of resources
    EU Waste Framework Directive Less biodegradable waste to landfill
    National policy on waste and planning Need to manage waste further up waste hierarchy
    Mayor's London Plan Each borough has target to manage waste (the apportionment)

    It will form part of Haringey's Local Development Framework
    [Our comment: The Mayor negotiates and agrees with each Waste Authority, how many of each of the following it should plan for:
    • Mechanical and Biological Treatment plants - MBT - for black-bag waste processing
    • Materials Recycling Facilities - MRF - for kerbside-collected recycling sorting
    • Household Waste Recycling Centres - HWRC - run by boroughs, for residents to drive to.
    The numbers agreed with Waste Authorities have been reduced in the past few years, because waste-per-person is falling, and is unrelated to the recession (it started in the mid-2000s).

    The Waste Plans then use the tonnages and plant numbers agreed with the Mayor in their site-finding work (which is always done by consultants). From experience, the West London Waste Plan (which is about 18-months behind the NLWP) have made a bad job of defending their MBT and incinerator numbers and tonnages when challenged, and also have a revised, lower set of numbers because the Mayor accepted that waste quantities per person are permanently declining.


    However, the NLWP will say the public consultation for north London tonnages (which predict recycling only up to 50% - ever) and the Pinkham Way suitability as a site have already happened.]

    (3.2) North London Waste Plan - Consultation so far
    • The planning process for the Pinkham Way application and the consultation process for the NLWP are separate processes that residents have the opportunity to feed into
    • 2007 - Informal consultation on key issues via a mobile exhibition (all 7 boroughs, in central shopping centres) and the website
    • 'Issues and Options': Formal Consultation (workshops, meetings and web based) between January and March 2008
    • 'Preferred Options': Formal Consultation (workshops, meetings and web-based) 14 October 2009 to 10 January 2010
      • LB Haringey workshop 2 November 2009 at the Civic Centre
      • Marsh Lane site meeting 14 December 2009
      • Pinkham Way site meeting 2 December 2009
      • 371 written responses, including:
        • Objections to all waste sites
        • Objections to Pinkham Way due to potential impact of vehicles on local roads, potential impacts on housing, park, school and sites of nature conservation
    • LB Haringey Cabinet agreed 'Pre-Submission Draft' on 8 February 2011

    (3.3) NLWP: Current Consultation and Next Steps

    Current Consultation - 27 May to 8 July 2011
    • Representations can be made on 'submission' version of the plan on-line, or in writing by post to Archie Onslow, North London Waste Plan, Camden Town Hall, Argyle Street, London WC1H 8EQ, or by email to feedback@nlwp.net;
    • 8 July 2011 - Deadline for representations
    Next Steps
    • October 2011 - Submission to planning inspector of all representations and plan documents
    • Early 2012 - Examination in Public
    • April 2012 (anticipated date) - Inspectors's report
    • July 2012 (anticipated date) - Formal adoption by boroughs of plan



    Our report: About 150 people attended the meeting. Questions after the presentation were a mixture of procedural queries, and statements of opposition to the planning application (to applause). Some non-rigorous notes were taken by us:
    • Haringey will decide if and when the planning application is 'sound'
    • It has asked the NLWA for 'routing schedules' for lorries - now, and if the plant were built.
    • It will also look at the impact on residential areas in Barnet and Enfield
    • There would have to be remedial action on polluted land, and a judgement made on nature conservation issues
    • 'Mel the singer' (Evening Standard article) lobbied Boris personally, particularly about the proximity of homes and schools; Boris initially confused Pinkham Way with Brent Cross (where Barnet has already approved a waste incinerator with a 140-metre chimney)
    • Haringey has recently changed the description of Pinkham Wood from 'Employment Area' to 'Industrial Area' in its 'Local Development Framework', but the former classification "was more appropriate to town centre land"
    • Haringey would consider if a model could be displayed [there was one - only of the immediate site - at the NLWA exhibitions, earlier this year]
    • Haringey would consider imposing 'planning contraints', such as: which boroughs could send waste there [We say: we believe that is unworkable over two to three decades], and traffic routing constraints
    • There would be a 'multi-layer analysis' [And it was all going so well, without any jargon.]
    • Odour, traffic and noise would all be considered
    • Haringey would form an opinion if this size of building was appropriate for 300,000 tonnes of waste a year - "We would not allow it if it could take 600,000." [Where will Haringey gain this expertise from? Will it be subject to full release under the Freedom of Information Act?]
    • All analysis would be placed in the public domain [Oh, that's answered that, then] and a recommendation made to Committee to approve or reject.

    [Please comment if these notes are wrong, and we will amend them.]

    Finally: Someone said that "The amount we throw away is increasing all the time." That is not so. Since the mid-Naughties, quantities have been declining, per capita, (and that is believed to be so all over the world, at least in 'mature' economies).



    For details of the 'Pinkham Way' motion at the Haringey Area Committee, which followed the Area Forum, click here.

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