Hampshire County Council

Regulatory Committee

17 July 2002

Applicant: Zebra Waste Disposal Services Limited
Waste Transfer Facility at the existing Zebra Waste Skip
Depot at Broadcut, Wallington, Fareham
(Application No. P/02/0614/CC) (County Council Ref. FA070)

Report of the County Planning Officer

Item 6

Contact: Julia Davey, ext 6732

1. Summary

1.1 This report considers an application to develop a waste transfer facility at the existing Zebra Waste Skip Depot at Broadcut, Wallington. The recommendation is to approve the application subject to a legal agreement relating to the construction of a new access onto Broadcut and conditions.

2. Site

2.1 The site, illustrated on the attached plan, extends across 0.26 hectare of land set back west of Broadcut within the Wallington Industrial Estate. The site is accessed by way of a shared bridge and track which serve a handful of different businesses, including Lucketts Coach Hire. The owner of the coach hire business has freehold ownership of the bridge which crosses a partly culverted watercourse that runs parallel to Broadcut. The River Wallington runs through Wallington Village approximately 100 metres to the east of the site.

2.2 Bridleway No. 100 runs along the access track and over the bridge. The nearest houses to the site are located in the Village of Wallington approximately 120 metres to the east.

2.3 The site is bordered by other industrial uses to the north, west and south and to the east by the access track, stream and Broadcut. On the opposite side of the road (Broadcut) are further industrial units, including the County Council depot. The site lies adjacent to a flood risk area.

2.4 The site is currently operating as a skip hire business. The business is well established and comprises a maintenance building, staff and visitor parking, storage bays and a bungalow used as offices.

3. Proposal

3.1 Planning permission is sought to develop a waste transfer facility on the site.

3.2 It is intended to import approximately 34,500 tonnes per year of inert construction and demolition waste and non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste (eg domestic appliances, cement, cardboard and plastics).

3.3 The proposal includes:

3.4 The site would operate for five and a half days per week between the hours of 0600 and 2200 Monday to Friday and 0600 and 1400 on Saturday.

3.5 The proposal would generate approximately 76 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) movements per day; approximately 36 movements more than existing traffic flows.

3.6 The applicant states that the need for the proposal arises from Zebra's requirements for a central facility to recover bulk construction and demolition wastes from its existing skip hire business, which has been in operation at the site for over 15 years. It would allow more control over how the waste is managed and the recovery of materials, as well as operating costs.

3.7 The applicant states that the proposal will also meet a need for a facility for small local businesses, including builders and contractors, to dispose of similar wastes at a local facility. The operation would provide the opportunity for the recovery and bulking of wastes, enabling the segregation of resources such as timber, metals, soils and hardcore, thus reducing the volume of waste requiring final disposal by landfilling. Transport and operating costs would also be reduced by providing a local facility allowing operators to offer a more cost-effective and competitive service.

3.8 The applicant is aware of the Wallington Depot transfer facility but states that SITA's business is focused on larger and industrial waste contracts. The applicant also states that Wallington Depot provides an emergency facility for wastes directed from local landfills, such as Paulsgrove, which are required to close regularly during certain weather conditions. In these situations, large volumes of household collection wastes from Fareham, Portsmouth and Havant boroughs, as well as from commercial and industrial waste contractors, are directed to the SITA facility. At these times Wallington Depot becomes congested causing significant delays for the operators using the site.

3.9 The applicant concludes that the nature of the operations at Zebra's transfer facility would be much smaller scale than SITA's and would not include mechanised processing or treatment of wastes. The volumes of traffic would also be considerably lower and would avoid the need for vehicles to use Pinks Hill to get access to the SITA facility.

4. Development Plan

4.1 The policies most relevant to this proposal are MW1 and MW2 of the Hampshire County Structure Plan 1996-2011 (Review) and Policy 36 of the Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton Minerals and Waste Local Plan (adopted 17 December 1998) (see attached appendix).

5. Consultations

5.1 The Highways Agency, Health and Safety Executive and County Surveyor (Waste) raise no objection to the proposal.

5.2 Fareham Borough Council's Environmental Health Officer raises a number of concerns which would need to be "adequately controlled" to avoid "adverse detriment to the amenities of the local residents and businesses", notably:

5.3 The Environmental Health Officer suggests conditions which should be attached to any consent granted to address these concerns, including hours of working reduced to between 0800 and 1800 Monday to Friday and 0900 and 1300 Saturday for those operations likely to be "audible beyond the site boundary".

5.4 The Environmental Health Officer also suggests that a noise impact assessment is undertaken to satisfy claims that the operation of the site, including traffic movements, will not impact upon the amenity of the area, in particular that of the neighbouring units and residential properties in Wallington.

5.5 The Environment Agency raises no objection to the principle of the development, subject to conditions. The proposed conditions include a requirement for a pre-development contamination survey to assess the degree of contamination of the site and its water pollution potential.

5.6 The County Surveyor (Highways) raises no objection to the application, subject to the completion of a lorry routeing agreement requiring all development traffic to use Broadcut and the A32 and not Pinks Hill. He states that the local highway network has adequate width and alignment to serve a development of this nature and, given the existing pattern of HGV movements to and from the site, suggests that the site is well located for a development of this type. The new access will provide visibility splays of 4.5 x 90 metres.

5.7 The British Horse Society objects to the proposal until a suitable solution can be agreed with regard to improving the access to Bridleway No. 100 or the applicant applies for a safe diversion for horse riders.

5.8 The Wallington Village Community Association states that if the application is to sort domestic and industrial waste for recycling purposes it would have no objection in principle, apart from the increase in HGV traffic. If, however, it proposes to shred or crush industrial waste, such as at Wallington Depot, Pinks Hill, then it considers that there would be a serious impact on the amenity of local residents. The Association summarises its case as follows:

5.9 The local Member, Councillor Ellis, would like assurance that the concerns raised by the Wallington Village Community Association are satisfactorily addressed.

6. Representations

6.1 SITA objects to the proposal on the grounds that it fails to demonstrate a clear need as required by the Development Plan. It also objects to the use of portacabins on the site as permanent office building, particularly as the County Council won an appeal against the permanent use of portacabins for offices at Wallington Depot. The applicant states that Wallington Depot is operating at just over 50% of its approved capacity.

7. District Council's Views

7.1 Fareham Borough Council has raised no objection in principle to the application, subject to two conditions. The first relates to details of the access visibility splays being submitted for approval and implemented before the new access onto Broadcut is brought into use. The second requires the submission of a lorry routeing plan to show routeing in both directions along Broadcut, Wallington Way and the A32.

8. County Planning Officer's Comments

8.1 The principle of the proposal is in accordance with policy as the site is located within an existing industrial estate allocated for such use in the Local Development Plan.

8.2 The proposal raises the following issues:

8.3 Concerns raised by the Wallington Village Community Association in relation to the doubling of existing lorry movements created by the development are noted. However, the County Surveyor raises no highway objection to the proposal, subject to a lorry routeing agreement, and consequently it is considered such an objection is unfounded. The comments about a financial contribution from the applicant to help fund a pedestrian crossing from Wallington to Sainsbury's are noted. But it is understood that the issues of a traffic impact study at Broadcut and a levy on new development are not planned or agreed for the short term.

8.4 The Borough Council's engineer has raised concerns over whether the southern visibility splay could be implemented because the land is not in the control of the applicant. However, the applicant states that this land is owned by the County Council as highway authority. Consequently, a legal agreement or Grampian condition imposed on any consent issued would satisfactorily deal with this matter.

8.5 Noise from the operations has been raised by the Environmental Health Officer and the Wallington Village Community Association. Whilst all unloading and sorting operations are proposed to take place within an industrial style building the nature of the business creating 70 plus traffic movements a day will undoubtedly be noisy. However, the operation is proposed on an industrial estate. There are many other industrial uses, including the Council depot, between the site and the houses in Wallington and although some houses are only just over 100 metres away Broadcut, which also runs between these houses and the site, carries traffic from the entire industrial estate. It is considered that it would be unreasonable to request a noise survey of the applicant in relation to traffic because the siting of this proposal is in accordance with the Development Plan. It is sited on land designated for such a use, ie an industrial site and also on a site currently operating as a skip business with no restriction on hours of working. It is noted that some skips currently leave the site between 0500 and 0530 hours.

8.6 The concern of the Environmental Health Officer in relation to noise nuisance being caused to neighbouring industrial users is noted. It is considered noise conditions, relating to operational matters, imposed on any consent granted would help satisfy these concerns. However, it should not be forgotten that this is an industrial estates and other businesses, such as Lucketts Coaches (next to the site) and the County Council depot (opposite the site), along with other users, create a significant amount of noise.

8.7 There is no visual impact objection to the principle of the development which includes tree planting on the eastern boundary.

8.8 A meeting has taken placed with the British Horse Society and the Rights of Way Officer to discuss concerns they have about the use of Bridleway No. 100. This meeting resulted in no objection being raised by either party as long as the width of the bridleway that crosses the application site was not less than two metres. It is suggested that a condition be attached to any consent granted ensuring the protection of the bridleway during the construction and operation of the proposal.

8.9 SITA's concerns about need are noted but are not considered significant. Competition between a variety of waste operations across the county and within the same locality is to be encouraged. The proposal is for a much smaller, non-processing waste transfer facility and is considered to complement the larger and more sophisticated transfer and recycling plant at Wallington Depot.

8.10 The comments from SITA about the inappropriate use of portacabins is noted. A condition requiring details of all buildings to be submitted for the approval of the Waste Planning Authority would be imposed on any permission granted, controlling this matter.

Recommendation

That, subject to a legal agreement relating to the implementation of the bridge and visibility splays, planning permission for the development of a waste transfer facility at the existing Zebra Waste Skip Depot at Broadcut, Wallington, Fareham (Application No. P/02/0614/CC) be granted, subject to the following conditions:

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1.

Published works.

2.

Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE

LOCATION

Waste Transfer Facility at the existing Zebra Waste Skip depot at Broadcut, Wallington, Fareham

(Application No. P/02/0614/CC) (County Council Ref. FA070)

County Planning Department

7246/JD

APPENDIX

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY STRUCTURE PLAN 1996-2001 (REVIEW) (ADOPTED MARCH 2000)

Policy MW1

Planning authorities will, through policies and proposals in local plans and day-to day development control:

Policy MW2

Permission will be granted for minerals and waste development provided the mineral/waste planning authority is satisfied that:

HAMPSHIRE, PORTSMOUTH AND SOUTHAMPTON MINERALS AND WASTE LOCAL PLAN (ADOPTED 17 DECEMBER 1998)

Policy 36

Mineral exploration operations (other than for oil and gas) which require planning approval will be permitted provided the Mineral Planning Authority is satisfied that:

Any permission granted for mineral exploration will be without prejudice to the consideration by the Mineral Planning Authority of any further proposals for mineral working that may be submitted.