Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

Resolved that the appended consultation response be approved for submission to Gloucestershire County Council.

The Leader introduced the report. The report explained that Gloucestershire County Council is the waste planning authority for the county. The County Council has prepared the Gloucestershire Waste Core Strategy (WCS) Publication version for public consultation from Monday 13th December until Monday 7th February 2011.   Once adopted, it will provide the planning framework for waste management across the county for the period 2012 to 2027 and will form part of the Waste Development Framework and part of the statutory development plan for Cheltenham.

The Leader explained that this was largely a technical response to a technical document and repeated some of the council’s responses already made.  However it gave the council an opportunity to re-emphasise some of their concerns which were set out in appendix 1. Whilst the council supported the general principle that waste facilities should be located in close proximity to the source of the waste, this needed to be balanced against the impact of such sights on the existing communities living in close proximity. He also emphasised that as a member of the Gloucestershire Waste Partnership, the districts were now seeking to have an influence on the disposal of waste which up to now had been a county matter.

The Cabinet Member Sustainability highlighted three concerns:

• A ‘ one site solution’  for residual waste could result in excessive transport from collection to disposal.
• As recycling increases, and if certain processes such as incineration were to be chosen for residual waste,  the critical mass required for the viability of the new site(s) may result in increased commercial waste or waste from outside the county having to be brought in
• Concerns about the siting of sites dealing with hazardous waste as set out in paragraph 1.13.

Resolved that the Cabinet approve the appended consultation response for submission to GloucestershireCounty Council.