Despite the continuing campaign by the Small Dole Action Group against the way the County Planning Committee considered the objections to this planning application in April, I was informed on 13 November that planning permission has now officially been granted.

This means that the operators will now be able to raise the final restored levels at the site and to continue disposing waste there until 1 October 2010. They will then have another year to restore the site.

As people will know, there is no West Sussex household waste going into the Site as this now all goes to Warnham, north of Horsham Town. The Small Dole Site now caters solely for commercial and industrial waste.

Following rumors about the possible resumption of cement production at the Site, the County Council Planning Compliance Section has informed me that the current planning permission situation is : -

‘Shoreham Cement works has an established use as a cement production facility since, as the original planning permission had no cessation and restoration condition, there is no loss of use through abandonment.

The only issue that may come up if production is to be resumed is if the buildings and machinery need replacing before actual production re commences.

It is understand that this will probably be the case, as the technology has moved on and the buildings are in poor condition due to neglect. In order to re use the buildings under the same permission, they would have to be restored materially as they were built. This might constrain up-to-date operations and procedures.

In effect, if the machinery or buildings need to be substantially altered, whilst the use is retained, a new planning unit is created by the physical changes, as established by case law (Jennings Motors v S.O.S. (1982).’

In summary, the Site has existing planning permission for cement production, but since it is likely that new up-to-date buildings would have to be constructed, with modern machinery installed, a new planning application would have to be made and approved before cement production could be re-started.

The Forum meeting last night at the Steyning Centre discussed three background Papers covering Strategic Mineral Sites, Strategic Waste Sites and Development Management.

No specific waste sites were discussed, just the criteria and constraints that should apply in deciding on which sites to include in the final proposals. The Group I was in certainly seemed against including any sites in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the reasons for this were noted.

There is another Forum meeting due to take place in Lower Beeding later this month.

The further key stages in the development include discussions with stakeholders, the search and initial assessment of possible sites and then the preparation of revised Background papers to enable the various County Committees to be advised on progress by June/July 2009.

There will be further community Forums between June and August 2009 before recommendations to approve the draft Core Strategy go to the various committees and full Council by December 2009. The approved draft document will go out to an informal six week consultation between January and February 2010.

Further stages will follow, including an examination in public by a Government Inspector, before the publication of the Adopted Core Strategy (including the identified sites) in November 2011.

It was good to hear at yesterday’s Liaison Group meeting at Small Dole that it appears that the air quality in Small Dole has improved in recent months, with fewer smells from the Landfill Site. Work is also in progress on the Site to further reduce the incidence of smells.

The planning approval to extend the life of the Site has still not been implemented due to ongoing legal discussions between the County Council and the Small Dole Action Group. There is, however, less waste going into the Site since all the household waste from West Sussex now goes to the Biffa landfill Site at Warnham.

As part of the continuing action to reduce smells from the Site, the new Site Manager, Mr Sarasketa, said he was willing, subject to operational constraints, to visit all residents who telephone his office during working hours to report odour problems. The telephone number is 01903 879544.

The Chanctonbury area County Task Force met this morning to review the current situation and the progress on the plans for the Service next year.

The current service should include a white van for people to leave white goods (such as washing machines) for recycling as promised in the County Council letter to all residents a few months ago. This has not happened, and we were assured today that this was due to a delay in gaining Cabinet Member approval. This has now been agreed and a collection vehicle for such items will be provided by Horsham District Council (hopefully from next week) when the Mobile Waste Service attends the various sites.

There have also been delays in replacing the various recycling collection dry mixed waste bins based permanently at each collection site. This is due to long lead-in times for the supply of such equipment by suppliers who are also facing rapidly increasing costs (plastic bins, oil price rises). It could still be a few more months before the bins arrive; in the meantime people should continue the separate bins.

Task Force members also asked about the supply of free home composters to residents in the Chanctonbury area to help reduce the use of the Mobile Waste Service. We were told that as at 4 October nearly 3500 units had been requested by residents. If you have not yet taken up this great offer, please do so soon!

The new Mobile Waste Service from next year will be introduced on a rolling basis as Horsham District Council roll out their new improved kerbside recycling service. This is expected to be by July 2009 in the Steyning area.

Finally consideration is still being given to the provision of a new permanent Household Waste Site in the Chanctonbury area. A further report will be made on this at the next Task Force meeting on 9 December.

Today West Sussex County Council announced that Biffa Waste Services have been appointed as the Preferred Bidder for the MRMContract. This contract for the processing of municipal waste not re-cycled over the next 25 years is due to be signed in March 2009.

The value of the contract at today’s prices will be just over £1 billion, which is significantly cheaper than the £1.6 billion it would cost to do nothing and continue to send rubbish to landfill.

The contract is for a non-incineration process at new waste management facilities to be built at Biffa’s own site at Brookhurst Wood, Warnham, North Horsham. Since all the County’s current municipal waste already goes to the site to be landfilled the new contract will not involve the transport of any additional waste to the area.

This contract is the result of four years working with the Districts and Boroughs in the County, consulting with community groups and consideration by a County Councillors Task Force (of which I am a member).

This is very good news for the County in that the wish by the majority of people that incineration should not be involved has been achieved.

It is also great news for the people of Upper Beeding, Bramber and Steyning in that the Old Cement Works site will not be used for this waste facility. There is no doubt that the major objections which would have been made against the heavy lorries transporting nearly 300,000 tonnes of waste each year to that site, delaying any planning bid to use the Cement Works site for a considerable period of time, played a part in making the decision to accept the Biffa bid.

However we have only won the battle, not the war! The Cement Works site is still in the County Council’s draft Minerals and Waste Planning Framework as suitable for a waste management facility such as an incinerator. Municipal waste only represents some 20% of the total waste which has to be disposed of in the County, and so a commercial operator could come along tomorrow with a planning application to use the Cement Works site for a waste management facility to deal with that waste. I will continue to campaign to have the Cement Works site and all such sites in the potential South Downs National Park deleted from the Minerals and Waste Planning Framework to remove this threat to our local environment.

I have been asked why the County Council no longer directs Horsham District Council household waste collection to go to Small Dole.

This is because when the landfill capacity in the County started to run out the County had to make interim arrangements for disposal of the waste prior to the new Materials Resource Management Contract (which will deal with all waste not re-used or recycled) coming into operation in 2009/10. Since at the time (last year) the Small Dole site was due to close in April 2008, and any extension was subject to planning approval, that site could not be considered and so an interim contract was agreed for all Horsham household waste to go to Warnham from this year.

This interim contract is now in operation. As all the recycling and waste minimisation targets have been achieved, along with a lower growth in waste than had been anticipated, the waste going to Warnham is only just meeting the minimum tonnage agreed in the contract.

Whether this lack of municipal waste going to the Small Dole site will have an impact on the current estimated life of the site will be raised at the next meeting of the Horton (Small Dole) Landfill Liaison Group.

Concerns have been expressed about the letter to all residents from the County Council regarding the future operation of the Horsham Mobile Waste Service in the Chanctonbury area.

I can confirm that the proposals listed in the letter for the period from July 08 to March 09 are taking place. This includes the provision of the appropriate containers in the car parks used for the Mobile Service such as Fletchers Croft, Steyning as stated in the letter.Where this has not yet happened WSCC and HDC are sorting this out and will be reminded about the matter if it does not happen!

The proposals from March 09 are still subject to discussion with the Parish Councils and further meetings of the Task Force are being provisionally arranged for October and December this year. I am sure concerns about the bulky non-hazardous waste collection after next March will be shared by others and debated at those meetings.

For those who feel that the changes do not reflect an improvement in services, the letter does not represent the final word on the situation. I have no doubt that all parish, district and county cllrs will still be working to get the best possible service for local people from March 09.

Following the outcry against the proposed closure of this Service and the consequent setting up of a joint County, District & Parish Councillors Task Force to review the proposal, it has been agreed to continue the Service, with some minor changes, until March 2009.

The main changes are: - all metal items will now go into the caged unit for recycling, and hazardous waste such as TVs and computers will no longer be accepted.

From April 2009, a revised fortnightly mobile service will  concentrate on green waste for recycling,  co-ordinated with the roll out of the District Council’s new improved kerb-side collection  arrangements.  The mobile service for non-recyclable waste will also continue, but on a less frequent basis – possibly monthly.

This joint working by the local community  has achieved success, and the County Council has pledged to keep us  informed on the service in future.

There will be a Forum meeting to update local community groups, Parish Councils and Residents Associations about the West Sussex Minerals and Waste Development Framework (MWDF) on Wednesday, 9 July from 7 to 9.30pm at the Steyning Centre, Fletchers Croft Steyning.

Invitations have been issued to those who may have been involved with the work that the County Council Minerals and Waste Policy Team (the Team) undertook during 2005 and 2006. The Government announced further changes to the planning system since then and the decision was taken to wait until the outcome of these changes was known until proceeding further with the MWDF. Rather than producing three separate documents, it is likely that there will be a single Core Strategy document including strategic minerals and waste sites. Comments received from the previous consultation will inform this work.

The aim of the Forum is to provide a chance to catch up with where the Team is with the work and to check, challenge and seek clarification of information and thinking so far, and local input is important to the early evidence gathering stage. The evening will be run by County Council officers and facilitated by an independent team from Inside Outreach who are working with the Team enhance their community engagement.

Hopefully people will leave the meeting clear about what is going on; what the changes are to the planning system and how it applies in West Sussex. Feedback will also be sought on some of the evidence the Team has gathered so far. This will be in preparation for a more formal consultation in 2009.

Attendance is by specific invitation only. If you represent a community group in the Bramber Castle area, have previously contributed to the work of the Team or consider you have an input to make on behalf of a community group not originally involved, and have not been invited, please contact me by 23 June. Spaces are limited and so it may not be possible for you now to be invited, but I will see if a place can be found.