Meeting documents

Appendix D

WEST OF ENGLAND

WASTE MANAGEMENT

AND PLANNING PARTNERSHIP

SECOND STAGE

CONSULTATION AND

COMMUNICATIONSPLAN

Version 6

2 November 2006

Index:

Aims and Objectives Page3

1                   Background Page3

2                   Statutory Requirements and Government Guidance Page 4

3                   First Stage Consultation Page 4

4                   Second Stage Consultation Page 5

5                   How the Consultation Action Plan was developed Page 8

6                   Action Plan Consultation Methods and Activity Page 10

7                   Communications & Marketing Action Plan Page 13

8                   Financial Implications Page15

9                   Consultation Period Page15

Aims and objectives

1.      To widely communicate keymessages relating to the Issues and Options Document  including thedraft municipal waste strategy

2.      To give stakeholders andinterested parties the opportunity to fully engage in the consultation

3.      To seek and obtainresponses to the Issues and Options Document  including the draftmunicipal waste strategy

1. Background

Bath & North East SomersetCouncil, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council and South GloucestershireCouncil are working in partnership to develop long-term joint strategies forwaste arising in the West of England area. These strategies will include ajoint Municipal Waste Management Strategy and a Joint Waste Development PlanDocument. A Member Project Board comprising Executive Members from eachauthority with waste management and planning portfolios is overseeing thedevelopment of these strategies.

The overall aim is to deliverwaste treatment capacity, which meets the requirements of the Regional WasteStrategy and minimises the financialimpact of the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme (LATS) Regulations andLandfill Tax on the four Authorities. The Authorities believe that there areconsiderable economic, social and environmental benefits in joint management ofresidual waste through the provision of strategic facilities within thesub-region, and these options are currently under consideration and review.

The Authorities identified aneed to undertake consultation throughout the process when developing bothplanning and waste management strategies. A combined approach has been adopted to theconsultation, communicating the same key messages and seeking views on issueswhich impact on both documents.

The consultation process is guidedby a Strategic Consultation Forum, comprised of Council Members from the four authoritiesand representatives of community and stakeholder groups across the West ofEngland area. This is an advisory group with no decision-making power.

Hyder Consulting werecommissioned to help design and manage the first phase consultation processwhich took place during the months of June, July and August 2006. Their contract will be extended to assist andadvise on the second stage consultation.

2. Statutory Requirements and GovernmentGuidance

TheTown and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 set out the legalsteps to be taken in preparing a developmentplan document. The pre-submission consultation process set out in regulation 25 requires local planning authorities toconsult with the community andstakeholders during the preparation of preferred options.

Governmentguidance set out in Planning Policy Statement 12: Local DevelopmentFrameworks is that local planning authorities must ensure that allparticipants involved in the preparation process are able to make their viewsknown and have the opportunity to identify potential development sites early inthe process. This is in accordance with a feature of the new development plansystem known as "front loading".

The preparationof and consultation on an Issues and Options document is an early informal stepin the production of the Joint Waste Development Plan Document and the Joint ResidualMunicipal Waste Management Strategy. Consultation on the document is intendedto identify the issues and options to be addressed by a Joint Waste DevelopmentPlan Document and will lead to public participation on preferred options(regulation 26) during the Autumn of 2007.

3. First stage consultation

Thefirst phase of consultation was intended to raise public awareness of the needto find alternatives to landfill for residual municipal waste. The consultation process focused on residual waste treatment and disposaloptions, but also emphasised existing andplanned re-use, recycling and composting activities as set out in eachAuthority's current municipal waste strategy. Waste minimisation and homecomposting were also covered as a backdrop to the overall need for residualwaste treatment capacity, and more general awareness raising of waste arisingsand disposal needs were presented at every opportunity.

Acolourful leaflet, with simple, wide ranging survey questions was produced anddistributed widely across the region.

Hardto reach groups were identified and a mailing list was drawn up which includedethnic community groups, faith organisations, youth clubs, business groups,retired people groups,

Public meetings and shopping centre roadshowsprovided a focus for publicity and distribution of the leaflet. A web site (www.rubbishorresource.co.uk) providedmore in-depth background information and enabled on-line responses to begathered.

Aspecific consultation event was held for relevant stakeholders working in thewaste management industry, which has provided input to the draft Joint RMWMS.

Overthe course of the consultation 2,111 questionnaires were completed from a totalof 14,500 distributed giving a return rate of 14.6%. Overall the first stage of consultation wasregarded as successful in terms of positioning the debate. It succeeded inraising awareness of the need to find alternatives to landfill.

Throughthe media and the surveys the public have been provided with many opportunitiesto see and to contribute to the debate, and awareness of the issues isundoubtedly higher now than at the outset in April 2006.

4. Second stage consultation

The next phase of consultation is not only the first step in theproduction of the Joint Waste Development Plan Document, but is also the firsttime that the public will have an opportunity to hear details of the treatment optionswhich are being considered for the West of England.

The focus of theConsultation will be the 'Issuesand Options' document which aims to generate discussion about :

·                   How wasteis managed and

·                   Where therequired new facilities should be located

In addition it will enable the authorities to engage with stakeholdersand communities at the beginning of the process to enable them to learn about,and influence, the emerging strategy before it is finalised.

'Hard to reach'groups

Consideration is given to ensuring the consultation reaches those whoare less easily attracted to public consultations. The following list briefly outlines some ofthe groups regarded as hard-to-reach groups and the ways in which they werereached during the first stage consultation.

The range of'hard to reach' groups was identified and targeted with information, but thefeedback form did not ask for personal information, or details of where theyhad received their leaflet and this will be addressed in the second stageconsultation.

Issues andOptions

At the heart of the next consultation is the Issues and Options documentand this contains the following information:

·       Introduction

Explains the background andgives details of how stakeholderscan engage with the consultation process. It also outlines the overall time frame

·       Glossary

An explanation of the technical terms andabbreviations used.

·       PolicyContext

Explainsthe legislative background, the relevant policies and the regional implications for the changingrequirements. It includes information on Regional WasteStrategy, and the individual waste strategiesfor each of the Unitary Authorities

·       TheAmount of Waste

Provides data on waste arising, recycling on municipal, commercial and industrial, andhazardous waste. It covers both existing data and projections offuture data and identifies the CapacityGap . At the end of this section therewill be an opportunity torespond.

·       The TechnologyOptions for the Joint WasteManagement Strategy.

Identifies the list of seventechnology options with descriptions of eachprocess. Explains the methodology for the appraisal of technologies. A feedback section is provided at the end of this section.

·       The Spatialand Planning Implications forthe Joint Waste Development Plan Document.

Explains the Entec study andthe stages involved in site selection. Liststhe indicators for site selection methodology, and the objectives and indicators for site assessment criteria. A feedback responseis also included in this section.

·       Shapingthe Joint Waste Management and Planning Strategy .

Identifies what the West of England Authorities regard as the keyelements for the Joint Residual Municipal Waste Management Strategy andincludes the vision, objectives and timescales. It also describes the vision, objectives andtimescales for the Joint Waste Development Plan Document. A response page is included at the end of thissection.

·       A responsemechanism. At the end of each section there will be anumber of questions or statements with space for people to add their comments.

Supplementary information is supplied as the following Appendices orseparate support and consultation documents:

·       DraftJoint Residual Municipal Waste Management Strategy

·       EnvironmentAgency Capacity Report

·       EntecSub-Regional Study of Waste

A short, illustrated version of this document will be produced for masscirculation.

5. How the consultation and communicationsaction plan was developed

The second stage consultation and communications plan has been guided bythe Strategic Consultation Forum who met on 5^th October 2006. At this meeting they brought a wide range ofideas on how they felt the needs and purposes of this consultation could bestbe met. Their views have been used to inform the creation of this document. Thefollowing points summarise the notes taken at the meeting:

General suggestions

• The Forum felt that resources should be directed at meeting people and consulting with community groups and individuals.
• The local transport commission reported that they set up a focus group for the WoE. It is a representative group of 12 people and it is still running. It has been very useful for enabling a representative group to become well informed on a subject.
• Councillors could be invited to suggest community groups who might be interested in supplying representatives or hosting meetings.
• The definition of the term 'stakeholder' was discussed and some thought it could be used to describe every resident or council tax payer in the West of England.
• There was a request that the language used in all documents should be clear, simple and jargon free.

Community action

• Since roadshows had been held in the first stage consultation, it was suggested that this time we should organize focus groups and community group meetings
• Any group consultations should try to be demographically representative of the population of the West of England.
• Information directed to schools was suggested as a way of feeding the message back to parents.
• There was discussion about the need to give 'environmental' groups a special consultation event due to their greater interest in and knowledge of the subject.
• It was felt by some that there should be as many public meetings as possible. The possibility of involving WI and senior citizens groups was considered with council staff attending these group's existing meetings to give a short talk.
• Hosting public meetings in each area was discussed. If so, they should start at 7pm and not be at the Council Offices. Preferably locations should provide adequate parking on be near a bus route.
• Citizens panels should be used wherever possible.
• A major event could be held in May, after the elections, to publicise progress

Publicity suggestions

• The website should be the main medium by which people, especially those who cannot get to meetings, could be reached.
• Editorial articles should submitted to the press as a way of encouraging people to visit the web site or attend a meeting.

After the meeting, these suggestions werediscussed and factors such as cost, feasibility, time constraints, staffinglevels were taken into account. Thefollowing outline action plan was developed to be carried out alongside theCommunications & Marketing activity in Section 7.

6. Action Plan - Consultation Methods and Activity

7. Communications and Marketing Action Plan

The communicationsplan will seek to obtain timely, positive press coverage of the next phase ofconsultation in order to increase the number of people who wish to engage withthe process. It will also try to ensurethat, in the interest of good communications, all material made available topress and public is accurate and concise.

• Press information has now been released highlighting the results of the first phase. This will be followed by a press release which will invite members of the public to join the key focus group.

• An abbreviated version of the Issues and Options document will be produced which will act as the key generator of responses among the general public. It is expected that only the most well informed and interested will wish to read the full length document.

• The communications plan will aim to create awareness of the next phase of the consultation and will gradually assist in educating the public about the new technologies via the articles in the local newspapers. New and more detailed press briefing documents for both waste technology treatments and potential planning issues will be prepared.

• Editors will be offered the opportunity to run regular features highlighting each of the technical options.

• If funding permits, key journalists will be invited to site visits to see the alternative technology options.

• A comprehensive technical glossary of technical terms and abbreviations will be prepared.

• The dates and times of public meetings will be promoted through press releases.

• Posters and new display material will be produced to support the public meetings

Proposed Communications activities

8.               Financial Implications

The following are the current budget allowances estimated as required tocarry out the Consultation and Communications activities described above. These amounts are provided for in the overallIndicative Budget Summaries referred to in the Project Initiation Documents andoverarching Cabinet / Executive Report for individual UA approvals inDecember. These amounts are allocatedbetween the Joint RMWMS and Joint WDPD projects.

The following budget allowances are also provided for in the sameIndicative Budget Summaries, as referred to above.

This amounts to a total budgetfigure of £26,375 per Unitary Authority.

9.               Consultation period

Although this is not a formal consultation stage, it is proposed thatthe period conforms to a statutory six-week period, from Thursday 25^thJanuary to Wednesday 7^th March 2007.

Preparations for the activities will need to be carried out prior tothis start date and where possible literature distribution, awareness-raising andmedia activity will also commence in the run-up period.