Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Environment

13 July 2004

Project Appraisal: Hartley Wintney - Household Waste Recycling Centre

Report of the Director of Environment

Item 10

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

EXECUTIVE MEMBER - ENVIRONMENT

PROJECT APPRAISAL

PROJECT:

HARTLEY WINTNEY - HOUSEHOLD WASTE RECYCLING CENTRE

COMMENCEMENT DATE:

SEPTEMBER 2004

COMPLETION DATE:

AUGUST 2005

PLANNED YEAR OF START IN ACCORDANCE WITH CAPITAL PROGRAMME: 2004/05

1.

FINANCE (Client Department, Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services [Estates Practice] and County Treasurer)

Current

Capital

Estimate

Programme

(at 2004

(at 2004

prices)

prices)

Capital Expenditure

£'000

£'000

Land to be purchased )

n/a

Construction )

n/a

Fees )

300

n/a

300

n/a

Less developers/

other contributions

300

n/a

Financial provision for total scheme

Total Cost

1.

From Committees own resources

(a) Capital programme (as above)

(b) Other - (holding account pending reimbursement from Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs funding award on completion of the project (must be before 31/3/2006).

300

300

2.

From other resources

(a)

(b)

(c)

TOTAL

300

Value of land for this project in HCC ownership £

Variations from capital programme

Revenue implications

£'000

% variation

to Committee's

budget

Net current expenditure

nil

nil

Capital charges

nil

nil

TOTAL net expenditure

nil

nil

2.

STATEMENT OF NEED/JUSTIFICATION FOR PROJECT

(Client Department)

Background

The existing HWRC in Springwell Lane, Hartley Wintney has permanent planning consent. The County Council is the freehold owner of the site. It is a relatively small 'single-level' site with an irregular shape because it has had to fit in around the adjacent Hart District Council Depot. The site has been at its present location since the mid 1980s.

In 2003/04 it received 6,518 tonnes of waste of which 43% was recycled. It was the 18th busiest out of the 26 HWRCs in Hampshire and was also in 18th position for recycling performance out of the 26 HWRCs.

The site is particularly busy at weekends during the summer months.

Because it is a 'single-level' HWRC, the site has to be temporarily closed for health and safety reasons (for up to 20 minutes) when waste containers are exchanged by the servicing lorry. At busy times the temporary closure can lead to the formation of significant numbers of customers queueing to get into the site.

During 2002 Hart District Council informed the County Council it was reorganising its Springwell Lane Depot and as a result there was some land adjacent to the HWRC that was surplus to requirements.

Project Design

The County Council has made an assessment of the surplus land that is available. It consists of two defined parcels of land amounting to some 250 square metres. Acquisition of both these parcels of land would enable the following significant site improvement and expansion works to be carried out.

Area 'A'

Approximately 225 square metres. This is located at the rear of the existing site. It would allow the compound area to be 'squared off' to increase its size and provide additional recycling facilities for waste wood as well as providing increased customer parking. It would also allow for the introduction of a 'variable spare bin bay' which would provide much needed quicker customer turn-round times as well as reducing by at least half the time it takes to service the waste containers.

Area 'B'

Approximately 25 square metres. This is located adjacent to the site entrance. It would allow the site entrance area to be widened and significantly improved to provide a much safer customer access into the site.

Project Timetable

The project can only proceed with certainty once the two parcels of land have been acquired by the County Council. There is an 'in principle' agreement between Hart District Council and the County Council that the land will be sold. Negotiations are under way to agree a purchase price.

Ideally the County Council would wish to acquire both parcels of land at the same time to enable the site improvement/expansion to be carried out as one scheme. However, there may be a phased release of land. Area 'B' currently has a storage warehouse on it which is still in use so release of this land may be delayed. Area 'A' is an undeveloped piece of land so is likely to be available sooner. If this is the case then the improvement works would be carried out as a two phase operation.

Option agreements will be completed in respect of each area, to be completed on grant of a satisfactory planning permission.

Ideally all the land would be available by winter 2004 so that the engineering work could be carried out and completed before the end of 2005.

Finance

There are three cost elements to this project:

(i) land acquisition;

(ii) construction costs; and

(iii) design and supervision fees.

The total estimated cost is £300,000.

In December 2003 the County Council received an award of £1.25 million from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) under the National Waste Management and Recycling Fund specifically for funding major redevelopment projects in relation to HWRCs. It is, however, time limited and can only be used for financing projects completed by 31 March 2006.

A 'Holding Account' has been established for forward funding HWRC projects which meet DEFRA's funding criteria.

It is proposed that the improvement scheme for Hartley Wintney HWRC is financed through the DEFRA funding award.

Further feasibility studies are currently being undertaken in respect of other sites which might benefit from improvements to be funded by the DEFRA award and these will be the subject of a separate report to a future meeting of the Executive Member for Environment.

Project Status

This is considered to be a priority project for two principal reasons:

(i) the opportunity to acquire additional land to expand the Hartley Wintney HWRC is only available now as a result of the District Council's review of its land requirements within the adjacent depot. If this chance is missed it is unlikely to be repeated in the future; and

(ii) the total cost of funding this project can be met from the DEFRA funding award of £1.25 million but only if completion of the project is achieved by 31 March 2006. Delay in implementing this scheme could mean that this funding opportunity is missed.

3.

IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL (Client Department)

National/County Network and Policies

The County Council as a Waste Disposal Authority has a legal obligation to arrange `for places to be provided at which persons in its area may deposit their household waste and for the disposal of waste so deposited' (Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 51 (i)(b)).

In Hampshire that responsibility is delivered through a network of 26 HWRCs. Twenty-four of those facilities are provided by the County Council and one each by the two unitary authorities of Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils.

The HWRC service has no formal County Council approved strategy. It is now being incorporated into the County Council's Material Resources Strategy. This will reflect its role within the Natural Resources Initiative which incorporates household, commercial and industrial waste.

Details of Scheme and Design Standard

The opportunity to acquire additional land adjacent to the Hartley Wintney HWRC would enable some significant site improvement/ expansion works to be carried out. These improvements works would have the benefit of:

(i) providing a larger HWRC compound area to reduce traffic congestion;

(ii) increasing the public parking area;

(iii) providing additional recycling facilities, principally for wood;

(iv) increasing the site's recycling performance rate; and

(v) providing a safer site with improved turn-around times.

Provision of a larger compound area would enable the concept of the `variable spare bin bay' to be introduced. This means one waste bin bay is always left unoccupied. Under this arrangement, on arrival at the site the bin servicing lorry delivers an empty bin and sets it down in the spare bin bay. This reduces the time taken to carry out the bin servicing procedure by 50% in reducing it from a four manoeuvre operation to a two manoeuvre operation. The knock-on effect is that the temporary site closure time, whilst the bin servicing is carried out, is also cut by half. This coupled with the additional customer parking spaces will have a significant effect on reducing customer queueing at peak periods of use by up to 50%.

A location plan is attached and detailed plans of the works will be displayed at the meeting. All specifications within the design will be in accordance with Hampshire County Council standards and policy documents as well as British Standards.

Environmental Impact

The 26 HWRCs in Hampshire provide the County Council's front line waste management service to the residents of Hampshire. In 2003/04 a total of some 233,000 tonnes of waste was delivered to these sites of which 45% was recycled. They provide an invaluable public service in accepting bulky household waste and garden waste free of charge, for either recycling or disposal. In 2003/04 there were over 4 million customer visits to these sites.

The HWRCs contribute just under half of Project Integra's current household waste recycling rate of 25%. They will play a crucial role in achieving Project Integra's Central Government recycling target of 40% by March 2006.

The planned improvement works at the Hartley Wintney HWRC are predicted to result in increasing the recycling rate at the site from the current rate of 43% to in excess of 50%, and thus contribute towards achieving the Project Integra recycling target.

Land Requirements

Two parcels of land, amounting to some 250 square metres, are required in order for the HWRC improvement scheme to proceed. These are highlighted in yellow as `Area A' and `Area B' on the plan to be displayed at the meeting.

This land is in the ownership of Hart District Council. The County Council is currently in negotiations to purchase this land to enable the scheme to proceed.

Statutory Procedures

Planning consent will be required from the County Council for the additional land in order to develop it as an extension to the existing HWRC.

A new waste management licence will be required from the Environment Agency for the enlarged HWRC.

Public Consultation

No specific consultation has been carried out for this proposal.

However, in April 2002 a full market research exercise was conducted across the HWRC network by the consultants Miller Associates. Amongst the data collected through focus groups and questionnaires the following themes emerged:

92% are satisfied with the service provided; and

51% use the sites to dispose of their garden waste.

In terms of service improvements the most significant reply was 51% wanted measures to be taken to reduce the congestion on site.

It is clear from the market research work that the HWRC network is held in high regard by local residents.

This project will improve the service at the Hartley Wintney HWRC. One of the specific objectives is to reduce traffic congestion at the site.

Local Member's View

The local Member, Councillor Glen, supports the scheme.

Equalities

There is the provision of a parking bay for disabled drivers at the existing site. If the proposed expansion works go ahead the parking bays will be re-marked including the one for disabled drivers.

The contractor who manages the Hartley Wintney HWRC has a contractual duty to offer assistance to customers (on request) in offloading waste items from their vehicles.

Maintenance Implications

The site management contractor has a contractual duty to keep the whole site clean and tidy including regular sweeping of the compound area and collection of any wind-blown material in or around the site.

There is also a duty to regularly check the site furniture (bins/steps/ signs/fencing/gates) and report any damage to the County Council.

Crime and Disorder Act 1998

The HWRC has a steel palisade boundary fence including steel palisade entrance gates which are locked when the site is closed.

The information sign at the site entrance gives details of an emergency contact telephone number in the event of vandalism being reported.

Sustainability

The proposed improvement works will enable additional recycling facilities to be provided, most notably for waste wood. It is anticipated that the recycling performance at the site will increase accordingly to in excess of 50% compared to the current rate of 43%.

4.

IMPROVEMENT - ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED

(Client Department)

The District Council is willing to sell this land to the County Council to allow some site improvement works to be made at the recycling centre. The option not to purchase this land and to leave the site exactly as it is has been considered and rejected. Acquiring this land will enable the objectives of improving the site entrance, expanding the compound area and increasing the recycling performance at the site to be achieved.

The District Council has no other land within its depot that is surplus to requirement which could be purchased for expanding the HWRC. Equally Thames Water has no land surplus to its requirements that is adjacent to the recycling centre. Purchase of additional land adjacent to the recycling centre, other than that already on offer, is therefore not an option.

The relocation of the existing site to a new, larger site in the Hartley Wintney area where a purpose built `split-level' facility could be constructed has been considered and rejected. There are other sites within the HWRC network which have a higher priority for relocation because they are small with only temporary planning consents.

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

Correspondence File 20/15/31

Environment Department

Room 216