YAPTON PARISH COUNCIL
PLANNING COMMITTEE
9 August 2004 - At a meeting of
the Planning Committee held in Yapton.
Present: Mr
Faulkner (Chairman), Mrs Barnes, Mr Jones and Mr Tompsett.
PLANNING
APPLICATIONS
The Planning Committee had before them and
considered the following planning application(s) and resolved as indicated:-
|
F/20/04/ |
Development of a
materials recycling facility, offices and visitor centre. |
Land at Ford
Airfield Ford Road Ford For: Viridor Waste Management Ltd Case Officer: Ms E E Hearsey OBJECTION |
In considering application F/20/04/ the Planning Committee wished to emphasise it did support the general principle of recycling, particularly when installations such as this were sited in the correct location.
The Committee’s reasons for the objection to this application were as follows:
1) The surrounding infrastructure at
Ford was inadequate for the proposed large increase in heavy vehicle movements.
The quality of life had already deteriorated in Ford and the surrounding villages as a result of previous
planning applications in the Ford area which had led to a significant increase
in heavy goods vehicle movements. Evidence of this could be seen on the present roads where large
areas of patching had taken place on both Church Lane and Ford Road to repair
damage caused by heavy vehicle movements. There was no proposal to strengthen
the present roads to take this additional heavy traffic.
2) There would be a conflict of
interest if WSCC was part of the decision-making process for this application
as the County Council had just awarded a twenty five year contract to Viridor.
The choice of this site was not for the benefit of West Sussex residents but it
was the best option financially for Viridor.
3) The siting of this recycling
facility at Ford would lead to a significant increase in unnecessary vehicle
movements around the County. Most of the processed materials would leave the
County at the Northern end to reach its final destination. It would therefore
be more sensible to site this facility at the Northern end of the County as it would
be en route to its final destination and would not have to travel from one
end of West Sussex to the other twice in the course of the processing
operation.
4) Vehicle movements along the A259
at peak times would be made significantly worse for local commuters and
businesses by any additional traffic generated by this application.
5) The
proposal would be in conflict with Policy ERA7 contained on page 99 of the West
Sussex Structure Plan 2001 to 2016 - "Proposals for the management of
waste (including recycling etc) should not
be permitted unless they are located as close as practicable to the point at
which the waste is generated".
6) The proposed development should not cause
unacceptable impact on the neighbourhood and should not be located close to
other similar facilities such as in this case, a sewage treatment works at Ford.
7) The location of the waste
recycling plant was unsuitable for employees and visitors to access
by local transport which would increase vehicle movements at peak times.
8) The facts and figures quoted
in the application required validation by an independent body.
The Committee furthermore resolved-
That representations should be made to the Government Office for the South East strongly supporting the request of Middleton Parish Council and others for the planning application F/20/04 to be “called in” under Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
CHAIRMAN