NORTH LONDON WASTE AUTHORITY
MEETING
MEETING
THURSDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2011
at 3pm
COMMITTEE ROOM 1, CAMDEN TOWN HALL,
JUDD STREET, LONDON, WC1H 9JE
The agenda is here,
and a posting after the meeting is here.
A report about Pinkham Way to the meeting (subtitle: "Blame the Riots"):
SUMMARY OF REPORT:
This report brings Members up to date on the Authority’s joint planning application with LB Barnet for the development of the Pinkham Way site, and the current planning policy context.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Managing Director and/or the Planning Adviser are given delegated authority to approve written representations in relation to the remaining stages of the North London Waste Plan process, in consultation with the Chair, and to participate or approve arrangements for others to participate on the Authority’s behalf in the Examination in Public.
1. BACKGROUND & CURRENT STATUS
(1.1) Members were advised of the general background to the proposed waste facility at Pinkham Way at the last Authority Meeting when it was noted that a planning application had been submitted to Haringey Council but that it had not yet been validated.
(1.2) Further dialogue is on-going with Haringey Council in order to determine the precise next steps that are necessary in order to take the matter forwards. The full and final list of issues to be addressed for validation, and the Authority’s position in relation to these, is still emerging however, so it is not yet possible to provide a clear and definitive picture. The need of the Haringey Council planning team to suddenly re-locate offices as a result of the disturbances in Tottenham has added to the timescales, but it is currently expected that validation may be possible within six to eight weeks.
(1.3) As part of this process the application is being developed into a “hybrid” application such that parts of the development will be in outline (principally the buildings) and other parts will be in detail.
(1.4) Members will be kept up-to-date at future Authority meetings as matters progress.
2. POLICY CONTEXT
(2.1) The London Plan has recently been finalised, so the London-wide, regional policy context is now settled.
(2.2) At the sub-regional level, the Pinkham Way site has been identified as suitable for waste use within the proposed submission version of the North London Waste Plan (NLWP), the development plan document for waste in north London. The NLWP is being developed by the seven borough councils in the Authority’s area in their separate capacity as local planning authority for their respective areas.
(2.3) The final round of NLWP public consultation has recently been completed; of particular note within this was the London Mayor’s acceptance of the principle of the use of Pinkham Way for a waste use. [Our emphasis.] The seven boroughs are now finalising the final submission version that will be submitted to the Secretary of State so that a Planning Inspector can conduct an Examination in Public to determine if the NLWP is legally compliant and ‘sound’. Given that the NLWP is due to be submitted to the Secretary of State at the end of October 2011, this will mean that the Examination in Public will be held in February/March 2012, with publication of the Inspector’s Report in May 2012.
(2.4) Haringey Council has expressed concern that determining the Authority’s planning application for Pinkham Way before the NLWP process is complete may lead to claims of prematurity, so the Authority has agreed to a delay in the determination of its application until after May 2012, when the Planning Inspector’s report is due to be published.
(2.5) The Authority has previously made representations to the NLWP consultations and expects to be invited to make written and oral contributions to assist the Examination in Public process and in order to present its views. This is likely to be necessary against deadlines that are not compatible with the normal Authority meeting cycle, so it is recommended that delegated authority is given for this purpose.
3. RECOMMENDATION
(3.1) It is recommended that the Managing Director and/or the Planning Adviser are given delegated authority to approve written representations in relation to the remaining stages of the North London Waste Plan process, in consultation with the Chair, and to participate or approve arrangements for others to participate on the Authority’s behalf in the Examination in Public.
4. COMMENTS OF THE FINANCIAL ADVISER
(4.1) The Financial Adviser has been consulted on this report and has notes that the approved budget provides for these activities. However, the budget for the Authority’s planning activities will be reviewed (along with all other financial needs) within the more detailed third budget review that takes place as part of the December Authority cycle.
5. COMMENTS OF THE LEGAL ADVISER
(5.1) The Legal Adviser has been consulted on this report and has no legal comments to add.
Er, that's it.
And from the last meeting, on 28 June...
POLITICS TODAY
(The NLWA 'Standard', first edition)
(The NLWA 'Standard', first edition)
Item 17: Pinkham Way document:
Head of the NLWA, David Beadle, wanted to bring members up to date. "The application was still being validated, and there would be information only at this stage," he said.
Brian Coleman:
"I would like to thank the officers for all their work, and for the excellent Pinkham Way newsletter. I want to encourage officers to dispel the nonsense that has been circulated about the site, and all the nimby politics."
Chair Clyde Loakes:
"I would like to thank David [Beadle] for producing the Pinkham Way leaflet.Brian Coleman:
"Some issues could have been dealt with a little better." [Ouch!]
"Which MPs have been contacted about Pinkham Way?"
David Beadle:
"All of them [presumably in the seven boroughs]. We organised a meeting, but they didn't all turn up. They are being approached on a one-to-one basis."The Pinkham Way report was 'noted'.
Item 19: NLWP Report (NWLA submission)
"This follows all our previous responses. We are now mostly concerned about Pinkham Way, household waste recycling centres [drive-in places, open to the pubic], and Edmonton.
"An important matter is the exact definition of 'SRF'.
"We need more time to complete our response."
['SRF' is Solid Recovered Fuel, the main output of Pinkham Wood. The NLWA wants to issue £4-billion-pound contracts for "25 to 35 years", starting with:
Possibly, the SRF specification is 'evolving', to allow non-incineration disposal (for instance, certain treated SRF can be land-filled, since it creates virtually no methane, or can be used for structural (even load-bearing) landscaping, and for road material).
- one of a current NLWA short-list of three companies for the main contract, the output of which is ...
- 'SRF', which - until now, at least - has been tightly specified. This SRF is then sold to ...
- one of another three short-listed companies, which will burn (new-style incinerate) the stuff.
Or, it could be that the NLWA wants to protect itself, in case it awards the same company both contracts. Why bother, it maybe thinks, to exactly define the intermediate SRF?
It is probably for another reason. Anyway, we cannot penetrate the NLWA bureaucracy to know, and we have to rely on the colour of the smoke coming from the Edmonton incinerator.]
'QUOTE OF THE DAY'
Brian Coleman [about Pinkham Way]:
"We should stop politicians getting on bandwagons. It is usually the LibDems. Now it is my own party."
'UPS AND DOWNS'
Going Places:
Councillor Melvin Cohen (Barnet):
"Why does it say this here ... and yet here it says ... ?"
[He was querying an obscure point in one of the documents, which he is told is "a mistake", and will be changed. Obviously he is the only NLWA member to have bothered to read it.]
Out of Sorts:
Councillor Clyde Loakes (Waltham Forest):
"... Thank you for [a particular] remark; it helps maintain what is left of my political career!"
[On the other hand, which political heavyweight does 'The Guardian' turn to, on Thursday 30 June? "Clyde Loakes, vice-chair of the Local Government Association's environment board, said: 'Organisations have the right to issue leaflets, but street leafleting could lead to heavy amounts of littering, costing councils a great deal of money to clear up. This would be detrimental to areas, and lead to a poorer quality of life for residents'."]
or link to HOME (see all posts).
No comments:
Post a Comment