North London Waste Authority: The Empire Strikes Back!

Pinkham Way update  7 April 2011

"We note residents' concerns about the proposed development at Pinkham Way, and we are considering their comments and determining any adjustments to the scheme as we prepare the planning application documentation. This includes feedback received at the public exhibitions held in February, and emails received at Pinkhamway@nlwa.gov.uk
We would also like to clarify a number of matters where we think there might be some misunderstanding about our project:

Site

We have looked for a site in north London that is of the right size, accessible from the strategic road network, suitable in terms of planning policy, and is also commercially available to the NLWA. The Pinkham Way site meets these requirements; it is a former sewage treatment works, designated for employment uses, and is well located to support our other waste facilities, including the major site at Edmonton.

Waste managed

The Pinkham Way site will receive and manage around a third of the waste currently produced in north London, but will be capped at 300,000 tonnes per year. The waste will generally be delivered from the collection rounds in Barnet, western Haringey and western Enfield. Waste from the other north London boroughs will be delivered to the NLWA's other sites.

Size of facility
It has been said that this site is the largest in the UK and in Europe; this is not the case. The proposals at Pinkham Way are for a waste treatment site, which will give reasonable economies of scale and a cost-effective solution for north London; there are many examples of sites of a similar size and larger in the UK and across Europe.

Noise and Odour

The waste facility at Pinkham Way will be fully enclosed, with no sorting, recycling or treatment of waste in the open air, thereby dealing with noise and odour from operations. The buildings will be fitted with a complete air management system that includes filtration for managing odour, and the site will comply with all required environmental standards.

Traffic

In terms of traffic flow - we have carried out a traffic assessment, which has showed that the additional vehicle movements would only add a very small percentage to the number already using the road network in the area. The number of lorries using the site will be significantly lower than the total traffic movement, as we have included staff cars within the figures in our initial proposals. The final lorry numbers will be identified in the planning application.

The next steps

We will keep residents informed as our plans progress, and we will shortly be issuing a newsletter locally to clarify some of the above issues. The newsletter will also give information about the next steps in the formal planning process that will be run by the London Borough of Haringey as planning authority. There will be a formal consultation process once the planning application has been submitted, during which people can comment formally on our planning application."

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While you are here, click below for the NLWA's Waste Strategy:

NLWA's web site: "How does the North London Joint Waste Strategy fit in with the procurement and the North London Waste Plan?"

The 'North London Joint Waste Strategy' sets out how municipal waste is going to be dealt with in north London through to 2020.

The 'North London Waste Plan' identifies where in north London sites to deal with all waste could be situated.

The 'procurement process' is the identification of what facilities are needed to manage the municipal waste.

Each of these processes contributes to a new environmentally sustainable approach for managing waste in north London into the future."