Assembly statement on Hafod
Carwyn Jones, the Assembly minister for the environment, planning and countryside, has just issued this announcement about Hafod: The Assembly Government has been asked to quash the planning consent for landfill at Hafod Quarry in Wrexham.
Planning permission to allow the use of Hafod Quarry for landfill was given in 1995 by the then Secretary of State for Wales as a result of an appeal.
Many locals are opposed to the development and they asked the local planning authority to use powers available to it to quash the planning consent and thus stop the use of the quarry for landfill.
On 4 September the local authority decided against revoking or discontinuing the permission. They decided instead to make a Modification Order to ensure that the landfill does not effect the nearby Special Area of Conservation.
The National Assembly has powers to rescind planning consents. In order to stop landfill operations a Discontinuance Order would be necessary. I will consider the case for making such an order and will announce a decision next month. The Assembly Government's policy is to consider such action only where the original decision is judged to be grossly wrong, so that damage would be done to the wider public interest. If the Assembly intervened, compensation might be payable and this would be met by the local authority.
One of the issues of concern to local residents is the fact that the quarry is taking waste from across the border. In the last year for which we have data, Welsh local authorities exported nearly 36,966 tonnes of municipal waste to landfill sites in England. In the same year 9,340 tonnes of municipal waste was imported from England. The cross border movement of waste will not be a consideration in the decision before the Assembly Government.
posted by hafod @ 10:35 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
so now's the time to increase the pressure on the Assembly government and also make sure they take financial responsibility for their decisions. As it is, they'll decide and the council could pick up the tab (assuming Murky Waste is cheeky enough to go for compo)
The modification "to ensure that the landfill does not effect [sic] the nearby Special Area of Conservation" is just a joke. For a kick off, the environment agency is talking absolute b*ll*cks when it says that the newts will benefit from living in the corner of a landfill site. Cocktails of chemicals aren't good for any living thing. By the time the effects on the conservation area become apparent, it will be too late.
Secondly, modification does nothing to address the fact that landfill at the site does not meet criteria which it would have to fulfil if new planning application was applied for. Important things like how near the nearest houses are, the fact that the site is within the Dee Protection Zone, and (although Carwyn Jones would prefer not to think about this), the distance which the waste is travelling to get to the site... all these are factors.
As for compensation, Mersey Waste Holdings said that they would not landfill at the site until all the planning matters were resolved. In the event, they went ahead and started work before the council had even met. They should have waited for the Welsh Assembly decision before commencing landfill, so there is no argument for compensation and a revocation should still be possible.
The decision to approve landfill was, and is, grossly wrong and damage will be done to the wider public interest unless it is stopped.
I'm going to have to write to Carwyn again now!
Everybody should write to Carwyn Jones now! The dumping also compromises the North Wales Regional Waste Plan. What good is planning and local government if an outside company can ride roughshod over everything?
Does anyone expect MWH will go for compensation? I think they're pressing ahead with as much dumping as they can now before the powers that be wake up to the illegality of their actions.
It is a matter of simple arithmetic! If Wales exports 36,966 tonnes of waste to England and they in turn export 9,340 tonnes to us we have exported a net amount of 27,626 tonnes of our waste to them.
We then have to take into account the 300,000 tonnes of waste that will be coming into Hafod during the next twelve months and then deduct 27,626 tonnes from 300,000. We are then left with a net amount of 272,374 tonnes of waste imported into Wales from England.
What a waste of resources and undiluted economic madness by the highly paid public servants who are employed to apply the most stringent economic rules in the allocation of public funds.
We know that we can expect no justice from the local council or the Assembly as they have stated the above figures are not a consideration in the decision before them. The only recourse left is to take the issue to the European parliament as this nonsense is flying in the face of all the E U guidlines for the disposal of refuse.
In the meantime, the protest should be stepped up and the public should be urged to return all plastic wrapping and containers to the supermarket where the goods were purchased, this will highlight the stupidity of the crazy adminstration that controls our lives and they may just get the message. Give them all "HELL"!
We're being conned. The politicians in power and council officials are working hand in hand on this - look at the e-mail to Nick Colborne. The Assembly is going to wait til the Modification Order is in place and then say there's nothing they can do.
So we wait for a month to be let down again?
I thnk we should be targetting Murky Waste - while we're looking for help from the Assembly they're busy dumping away.
What happened to that Lpool councillor who was dead against it? Has she been landfilled?!
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