Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The report seeks approval for the preparation of a Joint Waste Development Plan Document (DPD) to be added to the Council's Local Development Scheme.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Bath and North East Somerset Local Development Scheme is amended to include the preparation of a Joint Waste DPD.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 An estimate of the likely costs and staff resources is provided in section 6 of Annex 1 to the report considered by the West of England Waste Project Board on 6th January 2006, which is attached as Appendix 2 to this report. This identifies a likely cost of £100,000 for each Unitary Authority spread over a three year period (2006 to 2008). This cost will be met from within existing Waste Services budgets through reprioritisation, and this will be reflected in the forthcoming "Spring" version of the Leisure and Amenities Service Plan.

3.2 New waste treatment facilities must be built in order to divert increasing quantities of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill, as required by the EU Landfill Directive. Authorities face significant fines if they fail to divert this waste. The four Unitary authorities in the West of England (WoE) are projected to collectively face fines in 2009/10 of £11million if current levels of landfill continue. These fines will increase each year if waste is not diverted. In 2020 the collective fine is projected to be £34million.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 A West of England Waste Project Board consisting of Members and officers of Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils has been established to implement the "West of England Waste Services Modernisation Programme". This aims to deliver waste treatment capacity between now and 2020 and beyond to manage municipal waste arising from the West of England and to establish for other controlled wastes, the tonnage / treatment requirements of the Regional Waste Strategy. A major financial driver for the project is the introduction of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS), which potentially involves the imposition of significant fines on authorities who fail to divert sufficient tonnages of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill by specified target dates.

4.2 A Joint DPD prepared with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils will facilitate the implementation of the Waste Services Modernisation Programme as well as provide a planning framework for the development of planning policies to enable provision of non-strategic waste management facilities at local level. Approval is sought to include the Joint DPD in the Council's programme of work as set out in its Local Development Scheme.

4.3 Appendix 1 sets out in more detail the need for a Joint Waste DPD for the West of England, its content and an estimate of the resources needed for preparation. Appendix 2 contains the report to the 6th January meeting of the West of England Waste Project Board which considers the preparation process for a Joint DPD and, in Annex 1, sets out a draft Project Brief.

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

6 RATIONALE

6.1 The Government has introduced the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) to act as a mechanism for achieving the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill. It is likely that the West of England authorities can meet their targets for the next few years but thereafter if there is no change in practice the authorities will start to incur fines of £150 for every tonne by which they fail to meet their target.

6.2 The ability of the authorities to meet LATS targets necessitates provision of new facilities and a sub regional approach, building on the existing commitment to a sub regional waste strategy (agreed by the former Joint Strategic Planning and Transport Committee), is considered to offer the best way forward as recommended by the West of England Waste Project Board.

6.3 There is a need to develop a co-ordinated waste strategy which deals with commercial and industrial as well as household waste.

6.4 It is considered that a Joint Waste DPD can provide:

· A co-ordinated approach to waste planning in the West of England sub region;
· A joint approach to determining the range of facilities needed;
· The opportunity for shared use of facilities and complementary facilities within different authorities
· Provide a level of certainty to the waste industry to assist them in bringing forward development proposals in the right place at the right time.

7 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 Do nothing - this would rely on the submission of planning applications to meet the need for new waste management facilities in the absence of any agreed sub regional framework and it would be down to each Unitary Authority to determine each application on a case by case basis. This is not considered to provide the required certainty for delivering waste management facilities in the right place at the right time.

7.2 Prepare a joint waste core strategy and individual UA sites allocation documents. This option was initially preferred. However, officers advised the Project Board on 6th January that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had indicated via Government Office for the South West that this approach would not meet with their approval. The reason for this is that Core Strategies are intended to deal with a range of planning issues rather than with one issue. Whilst advice in PPS12 is, in the opinion of officers, ambiguous on this point, the advice of ODPM has been accepted by the Project Board in the interests of making progress with this project.

8 CONSULTATION

8.1 Executive Councillor, other B&NES Services, other public sector bodies, Section 151 Finance Officer, Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer

8.2 Discussions with Executive Councillor, Waste Services, and officers from other Councils and by email.