PTE/12/10 Development Management Committee 7 March 2012 County Matter: Waste Disposal South Hams District: Proposed Green Waste Composting on Land near East Allington, South Devon Applicant: Devon Waste Management Application Number: DCC/3308/2011 Date received by the County Council: 6 December 2011 Report of the Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment Please note that the fo llowing recommendation is subject to consideration and determination by the Committee before taking effect. Recommendation: It is recommended that planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in Appendix II to this Report. 1. Summary 1.1 This Report relates to a proposal for the composting of green waste at a site south of East Allington, in South Devon. 1.2 The main issues in the determination of this proposal relate to the potential impacts on the highway network; visual impact; and overall sustainability considerations. 2. Background 2.1 Planning permission for two sites for the composting of green waste was originally sought on two adjacent fields. Following advice from this Authority, one of the applications was withdrawn in order to seek to reduce the impact of the movement of tractors and trailers through East Allington. 3. The Proposal 3.1. The site which is proposed to accommodate the composting material is located approximately 1.5 km south of the crossroads in East Allington, within the Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV). The application seeks to provide a site for the composting of household green waste which is initially shredded and screened at a proposed facility at Mounts Plantation, East Allington. Access to the composing site would be along the A381, turning left at Firs Cross, following on to East Allington, turning right at the crossroads and bearing right at the fork in the road (past the church and the school), and continuing along this unclassified road toward Flear for appropriately 1km up to the gate entrance to the field. Using this route the distance to the site is approximately 4.4km. 3.2 The household green waste mainly arises from Civic Amenity facilities at Ivybridge, Totnes and Torr Quarry, with a smaller amount from local landscapers. This would be initially processed at Mounts Plantation before being transported to the application site by tractor and trailer. The composting process at the farm would involve the formation of the green waste into open windrows, being 3m high, 6m wide and 80m long and holding approximately 500 tonnes of green waste. 3.3 The processing of the windrows involves the monitoring for temperature and moisture and the turning of the material three times during the composting process. The processing takes about twelve weeks to complete before the compost is ready to be spread to the farm land. 3.4 This site would form part of a network of sites required to deal with green waste from Mounts Plantation shredding facility. There is an additional site proposed near South Milton [Application Number: DCC/3306/2011] which awaits determination, and a further site would be required in the future to compost the material from Mounts Plantation. 4. Consultations 4.1 South Hams District Council (Planning) – in a draft response from the Council it raises objection unless alternative transit arrangements or routes are adopted as a controlled part of this development. It also raises concerns that the windrow location proposed is not in an optimum position to minimise landscape visual impact. 4.2 South Hams District Council (Environmental Health) - comments that: the moisture content of green waste windrows would require regular monitoring to ensure that they are not too dry, which would create dust and bioaerosols, or too wet which would create leachate; no shredding or screening of material should occur on site; the turning of windrows should only occur when needed in order to maintain aerobic conditions; and regular litter picking should occur on site. 4.3 East Allington Parish Council - objects to the application. The Council considers the proposed route to be too narrow for such vehicular movements and that large tractors and trailers will result in danger to pedestrian and other vehicles. The Parish Council also considers that although the application mentions avoidance of school times, the school operates as a pre-school and playschool with extra activities in the evening. This means the entrance to the school is in operation in the morning from 8.30am to 5.00pm in the afternoon. 4.4 Environment Agency - has no objection to either of these applications, subject to the appropriate Exemptions/Permit being granted by the Agency. 5. Advertisement/Representations 5.1 The original applications were advertised in accordance with the statutory publicity arrangements. There have been 27 letters/emails of representation received, 26 of which raise objection and 1 emailed in support of the application. 5.2 The 26 letters/emails raising objection to the application do so on the following grounds: • the access route is single track with few passing places and by virtue of this is unsuitable for the volume of traffic generated. • the routing through East Allington will create dangerous conditions for pedestrians and residents within the village. Access to the school is direct from the road with no pavement facility, and small children have been seen to run into the road without due care and attention retrieving a ball. • the access route though the village is used extensively by horse riders and an increase in heavy farm vehicles would lead to conditions of danger for these road users. • the use of large tractors and trailers would result in structural damage to the roads and properties throughout the village. • the use of large tractors could block the road limiting access for emergency vehicles. • the access route is signposted throughout the village to be “unsuitable for heavy good vehicles” and for “light traffic only”. • the proposed development would result in an unacceptable level of noise and disruption to the residents of East Allington. • consideration should be given to on farm composting sites that are closer to the shredding facility. One of the letters of representation considered that if another route was provided that avoided East Allington, then they would have no objection. 5.3 The email in support of the application commented that the traffic throughout the village would be slowed by the proposed movements, making the route safer. They also observe that it is an agricultural area and that the proposal provides local jobs for local people. 6. Planning Policy Considerations 6.1 In considering this application, the County Council as Waste Planning Authority is required to have regard to the provisions of the Development Plan. Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires that where regard is to be had to the Development Plan, the determination shall be in accordance with the Development Plan unless material considerations, which can include emerging policies, indicate otherwise. In this case, the relevant Development Plan policies are summarised in Appendix I to this Report and are discussed in Section 7 below. 7. Comment/Issues 7.1 It is considered that the main material planning considerations in the determination of this application are the impacts of delivery vehicles on the highway network; visual impact; and overall sustainability considerations. Highways Impact 7.2 Vehicle deliveries to the site would take place by tractor and trailer. A 500 tonne windrow would require up to 45 deliveries. Only one tractor and trailer would be used, and up to 14 deliveries could be made in a working day. The site could be filled up to three times a year. The spread of deliveries varies between seasons, in the winter months it may take a few weeks to fill the windrow to capacity, in the summer months a few consecutive weekdays. 7.3 In assessing the access route through East Allington, whilst it is understood there is a concern for the road to accommodate these vehicles, they are essentially no different in size of an emergency vehicle. The agricultural nature of the surroundings also makes this form of traffic suitable for the area, and there are no objections from a highway capacity view. It is also noted that the use of the compost will replace some of the deliveries of other fertilisers, including sewage sludge. 7.4 However, it is recognised that in order to reduce the impact on local residents, only one site should be used. Following this the second application was withdrawn. 7.5 Objectors to the proposal have raised concerns about structural damage to the road, damage to adjacent hedges and verges, and structural damage to properties within the village. The rural road network is maintained to a standard to cater for agricultural vehicles and whilst such vehicles have increased in size the type and level of traffic generated by this proposal is not considered to be unusual or excessive. It is not considered that it would put an excessive burden on the highway network, nor cause additional damage to verges or hedges. 7.6 In the event of planning permission being granted, it will be necessary to impose an appropriate condition restricting the delivery hours to weekdays only between 0730 and 1800 hours. Furthermore, it will be necessary to restrict deliveries during school term times to avoid the dropping off (0840 to 0910 hours) and pick up (1500 to 1530 hours) times. 7.7 Taking into account the issues raised above it is considered that there is no highway objection to the use of one site, with the appropriate restriction of the delivery hours. Visual Impact 7.8 The site is located within the Area of Great Landscape Value and is visible from both local and more distant view points but is screened to some extent by existing road side hedges.