Surrey’s Plans for
Waste
Local authorities in Surrey
produce a number of plans and strategies relating to planning and waste
management: You will find more details of these plans below,
along with links to relevant documents produced by GAIN, Surrey County Council,
and Government Departments.
1. Surrey
Structure Plan
This
is a broad brush, strategic plan covering all aspects of planning. It sets out
over-arching ground rules for waste "disposal" planning. Produced by Surrey County Council and can be found on the SCC
web site. (updated 3/04)
It defines a framework of
policies on land use planning within Surrey. It contains a wide range of
strategic policies covering issues such as the environment (including a waste
management policy), transport and housing.
It sets out in very general terms
the ground rules for deciding how waste-related planning applications
will be considered and what the County plans to do. It is used as a rulebook to help county planners decide
what development will be earmarked in different parts of Surrey.
The existing Structure Plan,
approved in 1994, guides the amount and general location of development until
2006.
A new version of the Plan
called the “Deposit Draft” was produced in December 2002 and it is currently
being reviewed. Members of the public had until 21 February 2003 to object.
Take a look at GAIN’s concerns and GAIN’s model objection letter.
Read GAIN’s press release for
the week commencing 10 Feb 2003.
2. Surrey
Waste Local Plan
This
is more detailed than the Structure Plan and deals specifically with waste. It
sets out predictions of how much waste is expected, what the county will do to
manage it and where it will provide "disposal" facilities. Produced
by Surrey County Council and can be found on the SCC
web site.
It sets out policies for the
use of land associated with handling, storage, treatment and disposal of all
waste produced within Surrey (plus imports from London, etc).
The plan must ensure that
adequate capacity is available for household, commercial, industrial,
construction and demolition waste. This plan seeks encourage the move away from
landfill towards alternative ways of dealing with waste, including mass-burn
incineration. It is used as a rulebook to help county planners decide on
planning applications for waste-related facilities within Surrey.
The approved plan known as
“Surrey Waste Local Plan 1997” was adopted by the council in 1999 and covers
the period up to 2005.
In Summer 2000 the County Council carried out a review of the existing 1997 waste plan, this was followed by public consultation on the main issues raised. Three technical papers were produced by the Council. No new draft plan has been produced at this stage.
The timetable for reviewing the Surrey Waste Local Plan has been altered to accommodate the need to develop a Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy.
NB – The Surrey Waste Plan,
The Preferred Plan 2005 was presented to the Executive Committee Tuesday 27
September 2005.
A formal public consultation
was held 31 October to 11 December 2005
Inspectors
Report to SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL
20 December 2007
&
Appendix
A – Schedule of changes
3. Joint Municipal
Waste Management Strategy
Another type of plan, which has been added to ensure that the Districts and Boroughs (which collect waste) work together more closely with the county (which "disposes" of waste).
As stated on the SCC
web site, this strategic framework will indicate, “broadly the arrangements
and facilities required for handling and disposing of household waste in
Surrey. This will help to inform the Surrey Waste Local Plan Review, which will
plan for where these facilities will be best located.” Government
believes that a much closer partnership is required between collection and
"disposal" authorities if recycling and waste reduction initiatives
are to be successful in tackling municipal waste.
The Strategy is being jointly
developed by a group of Councillors and officers from all 11 District/Borough
Councils in Surrey in conjunction with Surrey County Council
GAIN gave a presentation to this group on 6 February 2003.
GAIN’s request for services &
facilities that could help us to achieve Government and EU
recycling targets without the need for incineration.
Also read GAIN’s press
release for the week commencing 10 Feb 2003.
This strategy will probably go out to public consultation in Autumn 2003, but this has not yet been decided.
4. Regional Waste Management Strategy
A consultative draft strategy produced by the South
East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) is under review by Borough and County
committees and will have a potentially profound affect on Surrey’s plans. (see details)
For background information
refer to Government
guidelines for producing this kind of strategy.