§ Sir Paul BeresfordTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what account he takes of local objections when deciding on planning applications for building incinerators. [128811]
§ Ms Beverley HughesWhen my right hon. Friend decides any planning application he does so after having looked carefully at all the relevant considerations, including all representations made to him, whether in favour of the proposed development or against it.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what guidance he gives on the desirability of siting waste incinerators near to principal sources of waste where the proposed site is(a) rural and (b) urban; and if he will make a statement. [128810]
§ Ms Beverley HughesGuidance to local authorities is given in Planning Policy Guidance Note 10 (Planning and Waste Management), published in September 1999. This states that the "proximity principle" is one of the key principles on which waste management decisions should be based, namely that waste should generally be managed as near as possible to its place of production, because transporting waste itself has an environmental impact. This holds good equally for rural and urban locations.
The other key principles to be followed in decisions on the siting of waste incinerators are:
consideration of the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO)—the option that provides the most benefits or the least damage to the environment as a whole, at acceptable cost, in the long term as well as the short term;regional self-sufficiency—that most waste should be treated or disposed of in the region in which it is produced;the waste hierarchy—a theoretical framework which acts as a guide to assessing the BPEO in selecting waste management options.