Agenda Item No. 2 DESCRIPTION: APPLICATION FOR FULL PLANNING PERMISSION FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A WASTE RECOVERY FACILITY (WATERBEACH WASTE RECOVERY FACILITY – WWRF) AT LEVITT’S FIELD, WATERBEACH WASTE MANAGEMENT PARK (WWMP), ELY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE COMPRISING THE ERECTION AND OPERATION OF AN ENERGY FROM WASTE FACILITY TO TREAT UP TO 250,000 TONNES OF RESIDUAL WASTE PER ANNUM, AIR COOLED CONDENSERS AND ASSOCIATED INFRASTRUCTURE: INCLUDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERNAL ACCESS ROAD; OFFICE/WELFARE ACCOMMODATION; WORKSHOP; CAR, CYCLE AND COACH PARKING; PERIMETER FENCING; ELECTRICITY SUB- STATIONS; WEIGHBRIDGES; WEIGHBRIDGE OFFICE; WATER TANK; SILOS; LIGHTING; HEAT OFF-TAKE PIPE; SURFACE WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; HARDSTANDING; EARTHWORKS; LANDSCAPING; AND BRIDGE CROSSINGS. AT: Levitt’s Field, Waterbeach Waste Management Park, Ely Road, Waterbeach, Cambridge, CB25 9PQ APPLICANT: AmeyCespa (East) Limited APPLICATION NO: S/3372/17/CW To: Planning Committee Date: 17 September 2018 From: Business Manager, County Planning, Minerals and Waste Electoral division(s): Waterbeach Purpose: To consider the above planning application. Recommendation: That planning permission is granted subject to the applicant entering into a S106 planning obligation and the conditions set out in paragraph 10.1 Officer contact: Name: David Atkinson Post: Development Management Officer (Strategic and Specialist Applications) Email: [email protected] Tel: 01223 715518 DEFINED TERMS: ACC Air Cooled Condenser AOD Above Ordnance Datum APC Air Pollution Control AQMA Air Quality Management Area C&D Construction and Demolition C&I Commercial and Industrial CEMP Construction Environmental Management Plan CEMS Continuous Emission Monitoring System CLO Compost ‘Like’ Output CTMP Construction Traffic Management Plan CV Calorific Value CWS County Wildlife Site DAC Denny Abbey Complex EfW Energy from Waste EA Environment Agency ELV Emission Limit Value ES Environmental Statement FGT Flue Gas Treatment FRA Flood Risk Assessment HHRA Human Health Risk Assessment IBA Incinerator Bottom Ash IVC In-Vessel Composting JMWMS Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy LVIA Landscape Visual Impact Assessment MRF Materials Recycling Facility MBT Mechanical Biological Treatment Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Core M&WCS Strategy 2011 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals & Waste Development M&WSSP Plan Site Specific Proposals DPD 2012 NCA National Character Assessment NPPF National Planning Policy Framework NPPW National Planning Policy for Waste PHE Public Health England PM Particulate Matter SAC Special Area of Conservation TA Transport Assessment tpa tonnes per annum SCDC South Cambridgeshire District Council SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest WDI Waste Data Interrogator WMP Waste Management Plan for England (2013) WPA Waste Planning Authority WWMP Waterbeach Waste Management Park WWRF Waterbeach Waste Recovery Facility 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 The application site is located at the Waterbeach Waste Management Park (WWMP), which covers approximately 165 hectares (approx. 408 acres), and is located approximately 6 kilometres (approx. 3.7 miles) north of Cambridge; approximately 3 kilometres (approx. 1.9 miles) to the northwest of Waterbeach village; and approximately 1 kilometre (approx. 0.6 miles) to the south of Chittering. 1.2 Since the 1950’s land within and surrounding the WWMP has been subject to sand and gravel quarrying, followed by backfilling with waste. In 2001 the County Council granted planning permission for a major waste management facility to serve the needs of Cambridgeshire. It was as part of that application that the site was referred to as the “Waterbeach Waste Management Park”. 1.3 The 2001 consent (S/01587/99/CW) broke the WWMP down into areas A – G which covered the different uses on the site, each of which had specific planning conditions listed on the Decision Notice. Many of these areas have been subject to further permissions which shall be explained in more detail in how the site operates in section 2 below and also in the planning history (section 4) of this report. 1.4 Levitt’s Field is an allocated site in the adopted Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Site Specific Proposals Plan (M&WSSP) under reference SSP W1K. It is an allocated site for the following potential proposed waste uses and was subject to review by an independent planning inspector, which is covered in the planning history for the adopted plan (section 4) of this report: Material Recovery Facility; In Vessel Composting; Energy from Waste; Inert Waste Recycling; and New waste management technologies. 1.5 This planning application is accompanied by an Environmental Statement (ES) as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 2011 (using the transitional arrangements in the 2017 regulations – Regulation 76). The applicant’s ES has been based on pre-application advice and a Scoping Report issued by Cambridgeshire County Council as the Waste Planning Authority (WPA), following consultation with key statutory consultees, on 29 June 2017. 2.0 THE SITE AND SURROUNDINGS 2.1 The application site, Levitt’s Field, is a grass field located within the WWMP covering an area of approximately 6.3 hectares (approx. 15.6 acres), which is currently an empty, flat, rectangular field, oriented with its long axis running north-west to south-east, and relatively level at 3.6 metres (11.81 feet) Above Ordnance Datum (AOD). The application red line area, which includes an internal access road from the public highway, and a route for a heat pipe to be laid to the Research Park roundabout, covers a total of 8.92 hectares (approx. 22 acres) which can be seen in Agenda Plan 1. 2.2 The WWMP is located immediately to the west of the A10(T) Trunk Road that forms the main arterial route between the towns of Ely and Cambridge, passing around the village of Milton and Waterbeach to the south, and the villages of Chittering, Stretham and Little Thetford to the north. The 2001 consent (S/01587/99/CW) permitted construction of a dedicated roundabout, connecting the WWMP site to the A10. 2.3 The A10 makes up the eastern boundary of the application site, behind an existing belt of deciduous vegetation that the applicant planted around seven years ago in recognition of the site’s allocation for waste treatment. The northeast boundary of the application site runs parallel to a WWMP facility, the Mechanical Biological Treatment Facility (MBT). Along the northwest boundary is a haul road, via which the applicant plans to access the application site. Over this access road is an area of non-hazardous landfill. To the southwest of the application site is a field of undeveloped land, which is outside the control of the applicant. 2.4 Approximately 500 metres (approx. 547 yards) further south along the A10 is the Cambridge Research Park. The Research Park site is over 45 hectares in total (over 112 acres) of development land, which has recently been extended through a significant construction and asset management programme across the site, including the development of an additional 7,432 square metres (80,000 square feet) of office/laboratory/mid tech space across three buildings, together with 7,060 square metres (76,000 square feet) of industrial space across a nine unit scheme called Enterprise 5000, which completed in May this year; before being sold to a new owner in June 2018. Situated between the site and Research Park are a number of self-contained units which collectively are known as the Glenmore Business Park. These units are leased for a variety of uses including; bathroom suppliers, letting agents, builder’s merchants and storage/distribution companies. 2.5 On the opposite side of the A10 from the Cambridge Research Park, and north of the village of Waterbeach, is a former airfield and barracks, allocated within the emerging South Cambridgeshire Local Plan for the creation of a ‘sustainable new town’. A proposal to the western part of the allocated area by the Secretary of State for Defence and Urban & Civic is currently subject to an outline planning application (reference S/0559/17/OL) which is expected to go to South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Planning Committee in November 2018. The application broadly contains plans for 6,500 dwellings (including up to 600 residential institutional units), business, retail, community, leisure and sports uses; a hotel; new primary and secondary schools; green open spaces including parks, ecological areas and woodlands; principal new accesses from the A10 and other points of access; associated infrastructure, groundworks and demolition; with all matters reserved except for the first primary junction from the A10. The emerging South Cambridgeshire Local Plan recognises that the development of the airfield area would provide the opportunity to deliver public transport improvements, and given the capacity limitations of the A10, road improvements would be required, including measures to address capacity at the Milton junction with the A14 further south. The application is currently undetermined and subject to an extension of time until 31 October 2018. An A10 study covering three strands of work has recently been published (between January and February 2018) that looks at the high level improvements required to the A10, which includes a package of measures needed to help support the growth anticipated in this area, which is discussed in more detail in section 8 of this report. 2.6 An outline