In a packed Council Chamber on February 4th, Staffordshire County Council Planning committee REFUSED the planning application Number S.09/16/4009 Waste Composting Treatment Facility at Hixon, on a number of grounds. The robust objection from local residents had a significant impact. The applicant has a right to appeal to the planning inspectorate
Click on this link to see a copy of the speech given by the Chair of Hixon Parish Council
WASTE COMPOSTING PLANT IN HIXON
FEBRUARY 4th IS D-DAY
The planning application to build a waste composting factory on Hixon Airfield will be considered for the second time by Staffordshire County Councillors at the County Buildings, Martin Street in Stafford on Thursday February 4th at 10.00am.
Hixon Parish Council wishes as many residents as possible to attend the meeting to see how our elected representatives respond to the hundreds of people objecting to the application, so please attend if you can.
If you are available to attend but need help with transport, please e-mail clerk@hixon.gov.uk or call Catherine Gill on 01889 272679 giving your name & the number of people you are requesting transport for, by 5pm on Monday February 1st. A coach will leave the village hall car park at approx. 9:15am to take you to the meeting and will return you to the car park after the meeting.
There are many, many reasons why we should all be alarmed at the prospect of this plant being granted planning permission, so please help demonstrate the strength of public opposition to this application.
If you have one of the “No Compost Factory Here” placards, please bring it with you to the meeting or return to Brendan Mckeown or Catherine Gill.
Minor amendments will be made to the placards on the day to make them relevant to the meeting.
PROPOSED WASTE COMPOSTING FACTORY IN HIXON
Representations by Hixon Parish Council and over 700 objectors resulted in members of Staffordshire County Council Planning Committee voting to defer a decision on the proposed waste composting factory when they met on December 3rd.
The members felt they needed to see the Hixon site for themselves and to learn more about the composting process by visiting a similar site in Derbyshire. They will be visiting the Hixon site on Friday January 8th 2010 and the Derbyshire site (Etwall) on January 11th. Hixon residents are urged to be present at the site meeting on the 8th at 09:30 as a peaceful demonstration of the strength of feeling against the proposal. Protest placards will be available for up to 50 people. If you can attend, please assemble at the ‘lower’ entrance to the Airfield (by A.L.E Ltd off New Road). If you are available to attend but need help with transport, please e-mail clerk@hixon.gov.uk or call Catherine Gill on 01889 272679
The County Council planning committee will meet again February to reach a decision on the application. In the meantime, Hixon Parish Councillors and their counterparts at Stowe-by-Chartley Parish Council and Weston, will be working very hard to persuade Staffordshire County Council planning officers to look more critically at the proposal and the alarming one-sided view they have taken so far in an effort towards pushing for approving the plans.
Keep visiting this web site for further information
WASTE COMPOSTING PLANT IN HIXON
Local residents turned out in force at the December 3rd Planning Meeting for the Compost Factory on Hixon Airfield. The County Council Planning Committee decided to make a site visit to an existing In-Vessel Composting Plant and to the proposed site in Hixon, before making a decision on the planning application at February's planning meeting.
See below for details of objection letters and reasons to object.
Parish Council agreed an extension until 3rd Nov 2009 for responses to the planning application for a Composting Plant at the airfield.
However, the Parish Council advises that you send in your objection as soon as possible.
You can respond by clicking this link
A list of reasons to object are given below. Pre-printed post cards have been distributed for people without internet access.
Ref: Application No S.09/16/4009 Waste Composting Treatment Facility at Hixon.
In no particular order, these are the bullet points of objection agreed at Public Meeting on October 13th. I have added some extra info where appropriate. This will form the basis for our main objections:
· Application is by a ghost Company?
· Smells and odours- no 100% guarantee that they can be contained within building or 500m radius of site.
· Dust and pathogens, can travel greater distance than 500m on prevailing westerly wind
· Vehicle movements 7 days per week into village and across open countryside
· Access issues; vehicles will use same route as existing public footpath
· Vermin
· Scavenging birds
· Public footpath will be unusable due to noise, smells, dust, scavenging birds and vermin
· Visual Impact and Intrusion in open countryside
· Impact on current eco-structure and wildlife balance- Roger Broadbent of Tixall is looking through application. Skylark population will be decimated
· Process is lowest technology for waste treatment. It does not generate recoverable green energy against stated aims and objectives of the EU, British Government and Staffs County Council
· Question whether process is re-cycling or another form of landfill?
· Is it an industrial process
· Site is outside Stafford Borough Council’s Recognised Industrial Estate Boundary (see adopted 2001 Local Plan pages 114-116)
· Potential ‘nuisance’ industrial sites are covered the Local Plan. On page 116 Policy EMP4. It specifically refers to alongside railway frontages where. “unsightly activities are difficult to screen”
· The proposed amount of waste to be processed would appear to be more than the proposed area of concrete hardstanding would accommodate (where will it be stored prior to disposal?)
· Alternative sites not researched or considered. Suggest Grindley House Farm it has an existing waste transfer licence.
· Question whether airfield is an ‘emergency landing site.’
Please click these links below to download copies of the objection letters sent by Hixon Parish Council regarding the proposed Composting Treatment Facility on Hixon Airfield
31/10/2009 Parish Council objection to proposed Composting Treatment Facility on Hixon Airfield
05/05/2009 Parish Council objection to proposed Composting Treatment Facility on Hixon
Airfield.
