Hampshire County Council Regulatory Committee Meeting

Apologies were received from Councillors Chris Donnelly, Mike Ford and Roger Price.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Personal interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

It was confirmed that four deputations had been received as well as a local County Councillor, with all having a maximum of 10 minutes each to speak.

For awareness, the Chairman confirmed that the consultation on the Minerals and Waste Plan had been approved at Cabinet[1] the day before.

Ancillary storage area at The A303 Recycling Facility, Drayton Road, Barton Stacey SO21 3QS (No. 21/02681/CMAN) (Site Ref: TV231)

The Committee considered a report from the Assistant Director of Waste and Environmental Services regarding an ancillary storage area at a recycling facility in Barton Stacey.

The presenting officers confirmed that Hampshire County Council had links to the site through the waste management side as well as the planning side, and this application was relevant to the latter.

The Committee was shown a location plan of the site as well as its relationship to the highway network and adjacent sites and cross-sections assisted with depicting the topography of the site. Members had visited and it was highlighted that an update report had also been published, which summarised a change to Condition 18.

Paul Knipe and Joe Edwards both attended and spoke separately as local residents against the application and Councillor Alec Sherwood also attended on behalf of Barton Stacey Parish Council to share his concerns. Rob Westell spoke in favour on behalf of the applicant and County Councillor David Drew spoke in support of the local residents and their apprehensions.

During questions of the deputations, the following points were clarified:

·         It was felt by residents that the wind speed projected by the applicant was conservative and much higher in reality. The site had a real-time weather station but the specific figures were not available for the meeting.

·         The material brought onto site had been incinerated at temperatures that destroyed any harmful chemicals or gasses within the aggregate, but any emissions would be monitored by the Environment Agency.

·         Current gasses from the site were predominantly steam and dissipated very quickly.

·         Material was no longer received from Kent

During questions of the officers, the following points were clarified:

·         There were no conditions relating to highways and queuing vehicles with the application as there were no proposed changes around this. The conditions related specifically to the existing facility and arrangements.

·         No complaints regarding dust had been raised by the neighbouring solar farm

·         It was emphasised that the monitoring of dust was within the remit of the Environment Agency and additional monitoring was also done as part of the woodland plan.

During debate, Members sympathised with residents and the concerns over dust, particularly with the technology around bottom ash being relatively new. It was accepted that condition 16 included measures around dust and that combined with a lack of complaints from the solar farm was very positive. The Committee also acknowledged that the site would be beneficial for the three Hampshire incinerators and that there were very few residential properties close to the site. It was also in a very suitable location in terms of accessing the highway network.

In summary, officers emphasised that managing Incinerator Bottom Ash Aggregate (IBAA) was a requirement of the Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan and the location suited the operations of the site. Whilst representations would not always be responded to directly due to officer capacity, they were always included as part of the report and update report.

RESOLVED

Planning permission was GRANTED subject to the update report and the conditions listed in Appendix A.

Voting:
Favour: 12 (unanimous)