Wisley Airfield (Hansard, 22 May 1996)

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has received no firm proposals for development of the Wisley airfield site. The site is, however, one of several being investigated by Surrey County Council in their waste local plan as a possible site for a large-scale waste treatment and processing facility.

§ Lord Eden of Winton
My Lords, how is it possible for seemingly sensible people to put forward proposals for a large-scale industrial waste disposal processing plant on this site which would result in an industrial complex covering some 28 acres, with buildings 100 feet high, chimney-stacks more than 200 feet high, resultant heavy traffic, noise and widespread air pollution causing lasting damage to the long established, world renowned gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society on the other side of the road? Will my noble friend ensure that such a proposal never gets off the ground?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I suggest that my noble friend cools it. As part of the local plan process, objections to Surrey's waste plan, including those to the inclusion of Wisley airfield in the list of potential sites, will be heard at a public local inquiry due to open on 5th November 1996. My right honourable friend sees no ground for his intervention in the plan at this time.

§ Lord Finsberg
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that I must declare an interest in this site in that as a DoE Minister I was taken to the ombudsman on the grounds of maladministration when I took a decision on the future of Wisley Airport in the early 1980s? However, at that time there was no question of any nonsensical development like this even being considered.

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I am interested in my noble friend's background to this whole situation. Under the Government's policy for green belts, industrial development of this nature is inappropriate in the green belt. There is a general presumption against inappropriate development except in very special circumstances.
846 Your Lordships may be interested to know that when I lived in Cambridge I constantly had a sticker on the back of my car saying, "Keep Trumpington's Green Belt".

§ Lord Eden of Winton
My Lords, in the week of the Chelsea Flower Show, would it not be appropriate for my noble friend now to give categoric assurance that such a gross act of vandalism should not be allowed to take place?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, my noble friend again presumes that the matter has gone beyond a very early stage. One of the troubles with Surrey is that it is running out of existing landfill capacity. It has put forward a number of sites. Suitable sites outside the green belt are difficult to find because almost all open land is within the green belt and no major industrial sites are available for such use. However, I have already said that development of this nature is thoroughly inappropriate in a green belt.

§ The Countess of Mar
My Lords, is the noble Baroness the Minister aware that in the United States of America, which has plans for such incinerating plants, the requirement is that they do not produce more than 0.001 per cent. of dioxin, which is produced when plastics are burnt? Can she assure us that no plant in this country will be allowed to emit greater levels of dioxin? Can she reassure us that any incineration plants will have scrubbers in their chimneys so that any effluent will be prevented from escaping?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, very tempting! I am not terribly good on dioxins. However, I believe that the best I can do is to give the noble Countess the Government's view on waste. They published their White Paper, Making Waste Work, on 12th December. It includes targets to reduce the proportion of controlled waste going to landfill to 60 per cent., and to recover the value—for example, through waste-to-energy—of 40 per cent. of municipal waste by the year 2005. I commend the White Paper to the noble Countess.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, did I hear the noble Baroness aright when I understood her to say that development of this nature is "thoroughly inappropriate" in a green belt? If that is so, will she indicate that the Government take that view, and will she convey it to Surrey—whatever the disadvantages that the noble Baroness described—so that the noble Lord, Lord Eden, is satisfied?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, any planning application for development which is regarded as inappropriate in a green belt, and which the planning authority is minded to approve, must be treated as a departure from the development plan and referred to the Secretary of State. This gives him the opportunity to decide whether there are any issues which merit his intervention to call in the application for his determination.