§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Woolas.]
5.58 pm§ Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley)I am grateful for the opportunity to raise a local issue this evening. I am also grateful that the Minister is here to respond. Having been in her position for a number of years in the past, am well aware that she has probably had to delay her departure from London to her constituency, although I suspect that the weather here will be duplicated there. Having been a Minister with responsibility for planning and having responded to similar debates in the past, I am equally aware that, although I am dealing with a specific application and related issues, the hon. Lady can only respond in broad and non-specific terms. That, of course, is because the Secretary of State is in a quasi-judicial position in that the Capel incinerator application, although approved by Surrey county council, has been referred to him for consideration because it involves a departure from the local development plan.
Surrey county council has an adopted waste local plan. However, the plan was considered by the local planning inspector to be totally inadequate because of the lack of a locational strategy and the lack of identification of any sites whatever for waste-related development. Because of that, the local inspector urged the county council to carry out an immediate review of the plan. Quite rightly, the inspector's intention was that that would provide an opportunity for the proper consideration of alternative sites and pay regard to the need to locate waste-related development as close as possible to the waste's origin. The shorthand notation for that is the "proximity principle". That would also ensure that all communities in the county would have the opportunity to engage in the consideration and that the relative environmental impacts and benefits of a range of sites would be discussed so as to provide the most appropriate solutions. Neighbouring councils have done that, and West Sussex county council in involved in that procedure at the moment.
However, Surrey county council has dragged its heels. Only preparatory work has been carried out in preparation for a revised waste local plan. In the meantime, the county has charged ahead with a competitive tender procedure involving the private sector not only applying for the task but being required to supply the sites. Clearly, a contractor's priorities differ from those of a public waste authority. In this case, it is important that the role of the public waste authority is to go through the procedures as set out by the inspector.
Environmental issues, such as the proximity principle, were clearly low on the list of considerations to at least one contractor. In the event, the contract was won by Surrey Waste Management, which submitted two planning applications for energy-from-waste incinerators. In addition, a second firm, Thames Waste Management, which is not contracted to Surrey county council, submitted a third application.
The geographical location of all three applications appears to be related to the availability of access for the applicants and not to other environmental issues. Two applications by Surrey Waste Management, the chosen contractor for Surrey county council, were at Redhill in 515 north-east Surrey and at Capel in the rural south. Thames Waste Management's application related to Slyfield, a site close to Guildford in central Surrey.
The interesting point to note is that the majority of the waste in Surrey is produced in the north-west and centre of Surrey, which means that both Surrey Waste Management's applications were at odds with the proximity principle. That also indicated the clear disadvantage involved in Surrey county council's assessment of the applications before its completion of a review of the waste local plan. In other words, in my opinion—and I hope eventually that of the Secretary of State—consideration of the applications was premature.
Broad issues were considered by officers before the committee meeting of the county council was held to consider all three applications. Considerable work was undertaken to produce a paper assessing need. After some months, this paper was produced for the committee—along with other papers—approximately a week before the meeting. Even a cursory study of the details suggested that there was little or no urgency. That impression was added to by the fact that Surrey county council's enthusiasm for recycling was muted to the degree that the bare minimum required by the Government was accepted as standard.
However, to everyone's great surprise, two or three days before the committee meeting, Surrey county council suddenly produced a completely new set of needs assessment statistics which—surprise, surprise—greatly enhanced its claimed case for urgency. As I am sure the Minister is aware, such an assessment of need is hardly an exact science. In fact, it is hardly a science; at best, it involves guesstimation.
However, given the Minister's background, she can imagine that this sudden change of statistics greatly disturbed the concerned public and clouded the issue. Furthermore, in this assessment, Surrey county council took no account of the fact that approval had recently been granted for a very large incinerator just over the northern Surrey border. The successful applicant, a firm called Grundons, is currently seeking waste sources to fuel this incinerator prior to building it. If indeed there were the urgency that the officers tried to impress on Surrey members, the utilisation of that incinerator would have been an obvious early choice. Incidentally, it would adhere much more closely to the proximity principle.
On 6 and 7 December last year, Surrey county council's planning committee considered those three applications. Having considerable experience of planning issues, I was somewhat surprised at the recommendation that the officers made to the committee, which it supported, although only narrowly in one instance. I must qualify that statement, however, as I undertook only a cursory assessment of two of the applications. The application from Surrey Waste Management, the council's contractor, for the Copyhold site near Redhill was refused. I believe that that was the correct decision. The thought of approving a large energy-from-waste incinerator site in the green belt was beyond even Surrey county council.
The second application, which I briefly looked at, was by Thames Waste for the Slyfield site near Guildford. That site has little or no environmental value in that it consists of sewage sludge ponds and a waste transfer station. From the point of view of the proximity principle, it has the advantage that it is very close to a main source 516 of Surrey's waste. The primary reason for refusing the Slyfield application was the substantial scale of the plant and the fact that it would be detrimental to the visual amenities of a nearby section of the green belt.
I found that intriguing. It is my opinion, which is based on the drawings, that Thames Waste had gone to great lengths to disguise the normal hideous solid square-block building with a chimney sticking out—the appearance of most incinerators. It had produced a modern rounded building which, when viewed from the green belt in the distance, was vaguely reminiscent of a modern cathedral, but without the cross.
The current situation is that Thames Waste is in the process of assessing over the next few weeks whether to appeal or to re-submit a further application. Obviously it may choose to do nothing, but with the recent approval on appeal of the Portsmouth incinerator application, I feel that an appeal may well be successful.
Interestingly, Surrey county council required Thames Waste to produce an assessment of all three applications, based on the proximity principle. Its application at Guildford clearly followed the proximity principle most closely—certainly much more so than either of the other two applications. Anyone who is familiar with Surrey geography and the applications would recognise that that is a statement of the obvious.
However, in considering all three applications, Surrey county council officers advised the planning committee on totally different grounds. Their assessment of the proximity principle was that if the site was within Surrey's boundaries, the proximity principle was met. In my opinion, that is a cavalier approach, especially as the committee members to whom I have spoken were unaware of the results of the mileage assessment undertaken for the county by Thames Waste.
The third application was for a site at Capel. That application for recommendation for approval by the officers was confirmed narrowly by eight votes to six. However, as I have already explained, that application has been referred to the Secretary of State as a departure from the development plan. I believe that that particular application should be called in for a public inquiry and final determination by the Secretary of State.
There are many reasons for that, and I will give only the main ones. First, the site is approximately 1,700 m from the green belt. It is clearly visible from it and from many of the sites in Surrey that people use to look over the downs. The view from those sites is beautiful, the downs are spectacular and there, sitting in the corner, will be a pile of tin cans with a chimney poking out of it in the middle of a rural area. The drawings show a hideous building. Although it would be slightly lowered into the ground, it would still have a detrimental effect on the view. What is interesting is that the key reason for refusing the Thames Waste application at Guildford was reversed or ignored and ceased to apply when the committee considered the Capel application.
The second reason is that the application proposes a substantial industrial development for a remote rural location, which is contrary to the guiding principles for development in the countryside as set out in planning policy guidance note 7. Indeed, the Minister for the Environment is on record as saying that he thought that
plans for incinerators in the countryside would not be approved".I wish that Surrey had taken note of that.517 As I have already said, the application flies in the face of the proximity principle. Waste for the Capel incinerator would have to be transported by refuse collection vehicles in central Surrey, predominantly in Guildford and Woking, to the Slyfield site near Guildford—the same site to which the application from Thames Waste relates. The rubbish would then be transported by road to the Capel incinerator, giving a round-trip distance of approximately 100 km. We face the prospect of tens of thousands of 100 km-trips by heavy lorries to transport waste that could be dealt with nearby. If there is to be an energy-from-waste incinerator in Surrey, handling Surrey's waste, then Capel is probably the most remote from the origins of waste in Surrey. That is acceptable only if one ignores the whole basis of the proximity principle.
The Minister, with her local government background, will understand my great concern about the transparency of the decision. The council is not only the waste planning authority, but has a land ownership interest in the site and a waste disposal contract with the applicant. Indeed, the service committee chairman reminded the planning committee of the importance of the fact that Surrey Waste Management, the applicant for Capel, is the council's waste management contractor. My concern is increased by the fact that the reverse point was made regarding the Thames Waste application as the company is not a Surrey waste management contractor.
The Minister will be well aware that neither of those points are planning considerations, but they almost certainly influenced some members. As I said, there is an argument that consideration of the applications is premature, but it is worth recognising also that the proposed development at Capel is contrary to the provisions of the current Surrey waste local plan, to the Surrey structure plan and to the Mole Valley local plan—Capel is within the boundaries of Mole Valley.
Council officers have recommended granting planning permission for the site on the basis that it is the least worst of the three applications before them. They did not accept the argument that the sites for such development should emerge through the local plan process. To compound that error, they, by their own admission, accepted that the applicant's consideration of alternative sites had not been exhaustive. Indeed, at a public meeting in Capel, I asked Surrey Waste Management's planning adviser why the Capel site was chosen. He gave two reasons. First, the applicant, as Surrey county council's waste management contractor, had access to the site because the county had a land ownership interest. Secondly, because it was a rural site and therefore of low population density, there would be little protest. That is hardly a planning issue. Even so, I believe that the Government office of the south-east is currently dealing with about 1,500 written protests from very upset people in the Capel area, a rural area with about 880 houses.
To put it mildly, Surrey county council's consideration of its waste management responsibilities and of the three applications is at best murky. As the Minister will be aware, when a local authority grants permission, in effect to itself, which frequently occurs, that authority should go to considerable lengths to provide transparency. I believe that, in this particular case, that demand has not been met. As the decision conflicts with various local plans and the current waste local plan has been severely criticised, the 518 application must be called in for a public inquiry and the Secretary of State's determination. Such important planning decisions must follow proper procedures and, most important, they must be absolutely transparent. In this case, Surrey county council has been found wanting.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Ms Sally Keeble)I congratulate the hon. Member for Mole Valley (Sir P. Beresford) on his success in securing this debate on the proposed energy-from-waste incinerator at Capel. As a former planning Minister, he will understand that I cannot comment in detail on the specific proposal. As he outlined, following its decision to grant planning permission for the incinerator, Surrey county council has referred the application to the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as the proposal departs from the local authority's development plan. That procedure was introduced to give the Secretary of State the opportunity to consider whether such proposals should be called in for his determination. The incinerator scheme is before him, and I cannot comment because that could prejudice his decision.
Nevertheless, I reassure the hon. Gentleman that in deciding whether to call in the proposal, which, I know, has caused considerable local concern, we shall give careful consideration to the points in his letters to the Secretary of State, Lord Falconer and me. We shall also consider carefully the concerns of the local community, which we have heard about at some length. Given the limitations on what can be properly discussed, this could be one of the shortest responses to an Adjournment debate on record. However, it may be helpful for the hon. Gentleman, his constituents and people who have an interest in these matters if I set out the procedures and principles, to reassure them that the matter is being dealt with properly.
Although the hon. Gentleman is clearly familiar with the Secretary of State's power to call in planning applications, it may be helpful if I run through our policy on call-in, which was set out by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport in a written answer to a former Member on 16 June 1999. The general approach of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, like that of previous Secretaries of State, is not to interfere with the jurisdiction of local planning authorities unless it is necessary to do so because Parliament has entrusted them with responsibility for day-to-day planning control in their areas. It is right that, in general, they should be free to carry out their duties responsibly, with the minimum of interference.
There will be occasions, however, when my right hon. Friend may consider that he needs to call in applications to determine them himself. His policy is to be selective about calling in planning applications and, in general, he will take that step only if planning issues of more than local importance are involved. Such cases may include, but are not restricted to, those in which the decision may conflict with national policies on important matters; cases that could have significant effects beyond their immediate locality; cases that could give rise to substantial regional or national controversy; cases that may raise significant architectural and urban design issues; or those that may involve the interests of national security or of foreign Governments. However, each case will continue to be considered on its individual merits.
519 Before I talk about other issues involved in this debate, it may be helpful if I say that the three schemes that the hon. Gentleman talked about are regulated by the Environment Agency for England and Wales to prevent harm to health and the environment. I understand that a permit application has been received by the agency for the proposed incinerator at Capel, which is currently under consideration. An incinerator must have both planning permission and a pollution permit to operate; gaining one does not guarantee that the other will be issued.
I am aware that Surrey county council considered two other planning applications for waste-to-energy incinerators last month, at Slyfield industrial estate in Guildford and the Copyhold works in Redhill. I understand that those, too, were deeply controversial. As the hon. Gentleman knows, Surrey county council decided to refuse those applications on a number of grounds. The applicants have until July to appeal against the council's decision; the Secretary of State may find himself determining the appeals so, obviously, I cannot say anything that would prejudice them.
I should like to say a few words about the plan-led system and why we believe that such difficult and often highly controversial planning issues can best be handled at local level. It might be considered that there have been shortcomings in the way in which the wider system has been handled locally. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman knows that when Surrey drew up its draft waste local plan, which was adopted in 1999 and is still in force, the plan contained a list of potential sites for large-scale waste processing and treatment facilities. There was considerable public opposition to the proposed allocation of some of those sites, one of which was the site at Capel. As a result, Surrey chose to delete them from its plan. Instead, the council drew up criteria-based policies against which planning applications for waste management facilities could be assessed.
In her report following the public inquiry into the plan, the local plan inspector recommended that Surrey county council proceed to an immediate review of the plan, which should include an identification of sites or preferred areas to accommodate Surrey's needs and to make an appropriate contribution to meeting regional guidance needs. I am encouraged to hear that officials in the Government office of the south-east have held discussions with Surrey about preparing a revised waste local plan containing sites for waste management facilities, although a new plan is unlikely to be forthcoming before the end of the year.
The lack of sites for waste management facilities is, of course, by no means exclusive to Surrey. In our role of scrutinising development plans to assess them against our policies, it is all too common to come across plans that lack identified sites for new facilities. A great deal of controversy is generated when such sites are later identified. If more sustainable waste management systems incorporating a range of waste management options are to be implemented effectively, there will clearly be a corresponding need to identify suitable sites for the development of the necessary facilities. The key instrument for identifying such sites is the waste local plan, which is developed in consultation with local communities.
Since Surrey adopted its waste local plan, my Department has finalised its advice in planning policy guidance note 10, which is intended to assist planning 520 authorities in the preparation of their waste local plans, and in the determination of planning applications for waste management facilities. It also provides specific advice on the criteria for the siting of those facilities.
We expect waste planning authorities to consider all the relevant planning issues when determining planning applications, and PPG10 makes it clear that waste management decisions should be based on the best practicable environmental option and the following three principles, the first of which is waste hierarchy. That is a conceptual framework that we want local authorities and others to use to rank the waste management options. It sets out a preferred order for dealing with waste—reduction, re-use, recycling, composting, energy recovery and, if those are not viable options, incineration without energy recovery or disposal through landfill.
The second principle is the proximity principle, to which the hon. Gentleman referred. It suggests that waste should generally be disposed of as near as possible to its place of origin. That was one of his prime concerns. It avoids passing the environmental costs of waste management to communities that are not responsible for its generation, and reduces the environmental costs of transporting waste. The third principle is regional self-sufficiency. As far as practicable, waste should be treated or disposed of within the region in which it was produced.
In considering waste management options, authorities should take into account all three principles to arrive at the option that produces the best balance between environmental, social and economic needs.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordWhen the hon. Lady speaks of disposal within the region, she is presumably not equating the region with the county. I raise the matter because next door to the northern border of Surrey is a site for which there has been a successful planning application, as I mentioned in my speech, for a large incinerator. It is conceivable that Surrey county council could use that, although the officers believe that they are restricted. I believe that they are misinterpreting the Government's guidance and interpreting the region as being within Surrey's boundaries alone. I think that that is incorrect.
§ Ms KeebleI do not want to be drawn into interpreting the guidance, as in this instance, there is a specific application about which the hon. Gentleman is concerned. If he would like any further information about the principle of regional self-sufficiency, I shall certainly provide it to him writing, but I do not want my comments to be read across to a particular application.
To assist waste planning authorities to develop sustainable strategies for the management of waste in their areas and in the preparation of their waste development plans, my Department has commissioned consultants to develop guidance and best practice on identifying and assessing the factors that should be taken into account when deciding on the best practicable environmental option for dealing with controlled waste streams. Research has also been commissioned to produce good practice guidance on the types of policies that should be included in waste development plans. That will benefit waste planning authorities when they prepare or review the plans and assist my Department in its role of scrutinising development plans to ensure that they comply 521 with Government guidance. Both studies will report shortly and I shall certainly ensure that the hon. Gentleman receives copies of both reports.
The hon. Gentleman spoke about the procedures by which the local authority would generally set about handling these matters. I thought that it might help him and his constituents if I set out some of the information, advice and views that the Department has on the way in which local authorities should conduct the process. The role of local authorities is, of course, crucial to achieving more sustainable means of handling the waste that we produce. As I explained, they are responsible for identifying suitable sites and methods for waste treatment or disposal. They are expected to take an integrated and socially and environmentally sensitive approach that includes the following three points: first, promotion of informed debate with the public and businesses; secondly, establishment of the best practicable environmental option, which means taking account of the waste hierarchy that we have set out in "Waste Strategy 2000" and the proximity principle; and, thirdly, regional self-sufficiency in managing waste and working with the 522 Environment Agency to ensure that planning and licence conditions are complementary and effective. He also raised concerns about transparency. Of course, any local authority planning decision must be taken completely transparently and with a great deal of integrity. I do not want to make any remarks that might impinge on that.
In conclusion, I repeat that we recognise the concern that is felt locally about the Capel scheme. I assure the hon. Gentleman that he can inform his constituents that the Government are fully aware of the strength of feeling and the nature of the debate. We will consider this matter and the different issues that are involved against our planning policies and the call-in criteria. I hope that in the interests of ensuring that his constituents feel that the Government are acting transparently, he can inform them of the criteria by which we make a decision on a call-in application. Although I cannot say more about the decision on this particular scheme, I can say that we will of course ensure that he has that decision as soon as possible. I hope that he and his constituents will find the information that I have set out of some help and reassurance.
§ Question put and agreed to
§ Adjourned accordingly at twenty-eight minutes past Six o'clock.