Issue - items at meetings - West Suffolk Operational Hub

Report No: CAB/SE/15/050 TO FOLLOW

Cabinet Member: Peter Stevens Lead Officer: Mark Walsh

RESOLVED: That

(1) the contents of Report No: CAB/SE/15/050, be noted;

(2) approval is given for a further six-week period of public pre-application consultation that will give an opportunity for suggestions for alternative sites and provide information for public scrutiny including the:

(i) case for a shared waste hub;

(ii) site selection criteria;

(iii) process of site selection;

(iv) sustainability appraisal; and

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL: That

(3) funding of £220,000 (£112,000 FHDC and £108,000 SEBC), as detailed in Section 3 of Report No: CAB/SE/15/050, be approved, and for this to be allocated from the respective Council’s Strategic Priorities and Medium Term Financial Strategy reserve to enable the project to progress.

N.B. Council approval is needed for (3) above before (2) can be implemented.

The Cabinet considered Report No: CAB/SE/15/050 (previously circulated), which sought approval for a further period of pre-planning application consultation and also to recommend to full Council, the approval of a further total allocation of £220,000 (£112,000 FHDC and £108,000 SEBC) funding to enable the project to progress.

Councillor Peter Stevens, Portfolio Holder for Operations drew relevant issues to the attention of the Cabinet, including that a second six-week pre-application consultation was planned which would make further documents available for public scrutiny. These documents included a sustainability appraisal, the case for co-locating facilities into a single site, site selection criteria and the process of site review and selection. This background detail would provide further opportunity for interested parties to consider putting forward credible, available alternative sites.

Councillors Beccy Hopfensperger and Sarah Broughton, Ward Members for Fornham and Great Barton Wards respectively, both addressed the Cabinet on the proposals. Both welcomed the additional period of consultation; however concern was expressed that the Hollow Road Farm site remained identified in the report as the ‘preferred’ location, and therefore they hoped that the analysis of the outcomes of the new consultation and any potentially credible sites would genuinely be considered. The topic of Report No: CAB/SE/15/051, considered next on the agenda was also considered to be inter-linked and how the implications of those changes, if approved, would impact on the operation of the proposed WSOH.

Recognition was given to separating the pre-application consultation and any planning application for a specific site, emphasising that they were two distinctly separate elements to the project. The Cabinet acknowledged that due to the significance of this project for West Suffolk, it was fundamental that the best possible, available, cost effective and efficient site was selected. Should the full site selection criteria and other documentation as set out in the recommendation be made public, people would have a greater understanding of the process undertaken to conclude a preference. If an alternative, credible, available site was identified through the new consultation, this would be investigated further.