HC Deb 02 July 1975 vol 894 cc1458-9
17. Mr. Marten

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will introduce legislation to prohibit the siting of rubbish tips in close proximity to areas of housing.

Mr. Denis Howell

The Working Party on Refuse Disposal which reported in 1971 recommended that, in general, sites within 200 yards of the curtilage of any existing residential community should not be used for refuse tipping. The report has been circulated to planning authorities but circumstances vary widely and I would not think it right to prescribe a minimum limit by law.

Mr. Marten

Is it not wrong, for obvious reasons, that local authorities should site major rubbish sites near housing and villages such as Ardley and Charlbury in my constituency? Will the Minister examine the proposition that where villages and people living around the villages object to this, there should be a right of appeal or inquiry against decisions of the local authorities, which in these matters of rubbish tips are judge and jury in their own cause?

Mr. Howell

I could not comment on either of those cases as I have no personal knowledge of them. These are matters for the local authority. I think that local democracy should play a part. I have some sympathy with the hon. Gentleman's point of view. I accept what he says. I assume that it is major tipping and not a minor in-filling arrangement. When the Control of Pollution Act is fully implemented, a new licensing system will be introduced. There may be some measure of relief in sight for the hon. Gentleman and his constituents as a result.

Mr. Ronald Atkins

May I support the request made by the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Marten)? Local authorities are often insensitive to the needs of the environment and I have had a great deal of trouble over many years about the matter. Will my hon. Friend consider discouraging local authorities from placing large rubbish skips within a few feet of houses, usually on council estates? These rubbish tips are filled by people coming in their cars from better-off areas, causing untidy areas to become more untidy and causing much distress in the neighbourhood.

Mr. Howell

Circumstances vary from place to place. In my constituency the provision of such skips is widely welcomed as an encouragement to folk to dump their rubbish, which they must do in our modern society, in acceptable and controlled ways. I know that this varies from place to place.

I have sympathy with hon. Members on the basic question. Local authorities would be well advised to take account of local feelings when they make their arrangements. But this is a matter for the local authorities. Parliament could not possibly countenance a system under which Ministers determined every local dumping ground.

Mr. Graham Page

Cannot the Secretary of State, by means of calling in planning applications for rubbish tips, establish the rule that planning permission should be granted only if there is reclamation of land and if the tips are sited at a distance from residences?

Is the Minister aware that the Secretary of State has made matters worse in my constituency by overriding a planning condition that a tip should not be used for radioactive substances, which causes great fear among the residents living alongside the tip?

Mr. Howell

Without notice, I have no knowledge of the last question raised by the right hon. Gentleman. Generally speaking the House applied its mind to these matters, as did the present Government and the previous Government. That consideration found expression in the Control of Pollution Act 1974. We are now actively considering how soon we can implement that Act. The question will he decided on matters of economics and financial availability. That Pct will give us much more power over these matters than we now have.