Posts by Steve Spear
20/05/2010 No comments

Bridport waste transfer station exhibition – NOWTS’ view: ‘It’s endgame time’

Editor’s Note: Steve Spear is a member of the pressure group NOWTS, formed in Bradpole to campaign against Dorset County Council’s idea of putting a Waste Transfer Station (WTS) at Gore Cross. What follows below is a lightly edited version of a piece issued for general distribution, and it makes some interesting points, particularly about Lilac Farm, previously written about on this site. Could it indeed turn out to be the solution to years of costly wrangles? As Mr Spear writes, “this process has to come to an end sometime.”       

I THINK most people will know that Dorset County Council have organised an exhibition at Bridport Town Hall which is open this Friday 21, May (11am to 6pm) and on Saturday 22, May (9.30am to 12.30pm).

It’s about the Stage 1A review report the county have produced which you can see at this link http://www.dorsetforyou.com/westwasteplan 

There are hundreds of pages - the consultants have to show they’ve earned their keep! - but it boils down to a list of six sites being put forward with a seventh being added at the last minute. 

Broomhills Farm

Eype Junction (previously referred to as the Watton Farm site adjacent to the picnic area) Gore Cross North of Watford Lane

Green Lane

Lilac Farm (this is the late addition)

Miles Cross 1

Miles Cross 2

I won’t go into it all in detail, there is a map available on the county pages that shows where they are, but the first thing to note is that Gore Cross is now the only site without direct access onto the A35.

The county says about the exhibition: ”This is an opportunity for local people to find out more about the proposed facility, the short-listed sites and comment on the Stage 1A report, before The Stage 2 report, which is expected to be completed during summer 2010.  Following the Stage 2 report, the county council’s cabinet will make the final decision about which site will go forward for a planning application.”

Our previous experience would tend to make us feel that this exhibition will be more about the county telling us what they are going to do, rather than listening to what we think but you never know, perhaps they have had a genuine change of heart. 

I urge you all to go along and make your point of view known.

Some points that have been mentioned by others are:

Gore Cross has not been re-assessed despite the change in the Highways Agency position. As Gore Cross went to the top of the list because it avoided the A35, surely it should be looked at again?

Despite what the county have said in the past, the Gore Cross site development was rejected in two planning inspectors’ reports and these decisions are meant to be binding on the local authorities.

Now that sites directly off the A35 are allowed, shouldn’t this be a primary requirement?

You all know the arguments against Gore Cross and how the new stance of the Highways Agency has cut the ground from under the county’s feet in their march up the A3066 but we need to consider if supporting another site might encourage them to look elsewhere. To look at a site which might actually be better and achievable.

The late addition of the Lilac Farm site is very interesting. This site is to the east of Bridport, directly off the A35 on the northern side after the entrance to Green Lane House and before the second Walditch turn on the right. The address is Lilac Farm, Walditch, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4LH so I think you can guess which village will be complaining about this site, though it is on the other side of the main road to Walditch proper.

Apparently the owner is willing to sell the land, the only house on the site is his, which he is also willing to sell, the site can be accessed directly off the A35 (though some form of proper junction will have to be made), it’s on the east side of Bridport so the large lorries coming and going from the main waste/landfill  site will not have to go round the town or up to Gore Cross and it’s still in Bradpole Parish so the parish council can say, “see, we’re not nimbys after all!”

The only problems I can see with this site are its proximity to Green Lane House, a good, safe entrance needs to be provided (paid for!), and it will be visible from higher ground to the south, (though right alongside the road, which is a bit of a blot on the landscape already).

If a lot of people were to support this site and if the parish council were to do so as well, which seems likely, would the county breath a sigh of relief and focus on Lilac Farm?

Bradpole Parish council will be holding a meeting at Bradpole village hall on Thursday, 3 June 3 at 7.30pm when they will be discussing their response to the report and exhibition. Members of the public are invited to attend and make their views known.

As we all know, there is no such thing as a perfect site, whatever is proposed someone will find objectionable, but this process has to come to an end sometime.

Personally I have believed from the start that direct access off the A35 is the only way to go and I am very encouraged that six of the seven sites on the list have that.

It has taken a very long time and been arduous but perhaps we are getting closer to a sensible solution. I very much hope so.

Finally, I have been asked to mention that the St Andrews Road Residents Association are going to be present at the Town Hall exhibition and will be handing out information in the doorway to help people interpret the exhibition in a balanced way. They are looking for volunteers to do a one hour shift on the doorstep during the exhibition hours and if anyone is willing to help, they would very much like to hear from you. Please contact Neil or Louise on 421720 or e-mail st.andrews.road.@googlemail.com

Related posts

- Six sites shortlisted, including one near the Eype picnic area

- Leading councillor Ronald Coatsworth gores Dorset County Council 

- Pressure group NOWTS speaks out 

- Well-known Bridport green Leon Edwards calls for leadership and action 

- Steve Spear of NOWTS responds to Leon Edwards

-  Bridport: Has a site finally been found for a new waste transfer station?
07/04/2010 No comments

Bridport waste row: Steve Spear responds to Leon Edwards

I DECIDED some time ago to ignore what Leon says, but as he mentioned me in his piece I thought I should respond.

Marked in green; the land at Gore Cross, just off the A3066 north of Bridport, that would be used for a Waste Transfer Station, if proposals to put one at Gore Cross are ever approved.

Leon seems to think that the money spent on the Gore Cross site is because of the objections by local residents and others. That’s strange, because Dorset County Council don’t agree, they say that the money was a necessary expenditure as a result of their decision to put the Waste Transfer Station (WTS) there and that all the investigation and preparatory work would be required for any site.

Leon also says that the Highways Agency recently lifted their block on sites off the A35 “without explanation” and that the “nimby opponents” (which presumably includes me) failed to mention this previous restriction. I find this strange as when we asked the Highways Agency some time ago about this restriction they said they had no objection, in principle, to such a site. They said they couldn’t comment on any site until they had received a proposal and that no such proposal had been received. (That is, the county hadn’t specifically asked them!) It seems that Leon has just taken what the County told him as the truth and repeated it as such.

The fact is that when the county finally got round to asking about the A35 restriction it miraculously disappeared, because it was never really there in the first place. As Leon rightly says, any new site will bring forth objectors who want to question decisions and have their say. He doesn’t seem to like this and says it is “stretching democratic rights”. I wonder who decided to let him judge how far people’s democratic rights extend, I certainly don’t agree with that decision.

Why did no one “kick some butt”?

Leon then goes on to attack Councillor Coatsworth. He mentions our “13 year waste centre dilemma” and asks if the councillors’ expenses shouldn’t be added to the costs of the project. Maybe, but not just Ron Coatsworth, what about all the other councillors? For years DCC waited for SITA to fulfill the terms of their contract and provide a WTS. It was obvious to everyone that it was not happening, yet the county did nothing. They sat on their hands and said, “It’s not our problem, SITA are contracted to do it, blame them”, as if that was enough. Why did no one “kick some butt”? No one managed the process, no one at the county pushed it forward. Of course later, the county didn’t want SITA to do it; they wanted to build it themselves. You can’t just pick out one councillor. It was a collective failure by the county administration as a whole that made this drag on so long.

Of course Leon has attacked Councillor Coatsworth in the press before. You may have missed it, because when he stood against him in the local elections, he did it under another name. [Editor's Note: Leon Edwards has stood for election in the past as Leon Sea]. You’d think that someone so concerned with “honesty and reality” in public office would make a point of mentioning that. He wants people to be prevented from serving on several councils at once. If that were to happen it would free up a lot of spaces for candidates at election, I wonder who he might have in mind for the job? Leon is very concerned with Councillor Coatsworth’s expenses; he’s gone to all the trouble to add it up. I’m confident if Leon were ever elected he would make sure that every penny he received would be well spent!

Finally, Leon suggests that if Gore Cross had been approved as the Waste Transfer site we “may well not have the new Lidl/Travis Perkins monstrosity”. I cannot believe he’s that naive. WDDC are responsible for traffic on that road and have always said (clearly and on record) that the road can handle all the traffic from the WTS and Lidl with minor mitigation measures. Putting the WTS at Gore Cross would not alter the position with regard to the Lidl application at all. (By the way Leon, if you ever stand for election again, you would do well to remember that lots of people in Bridport want Lidl, remember how the Lib Dem candidates changed their tune?)

So to sum up. Leon is wrong, he quotes the opinion of the county council without checking it, he speaks from a position of undeclared self-interest and attacks someone because he wants their job. I think I’ll go back to ignoring him.
30/03/2010 No comments

Bridport waste row: “Another nail in the Gore Cross coffin” says pressure group NOWTS

ANY SENSIBLE person would think that this latest review of possible locations for a Bridport waste transfer station has put another nail in the Gore Cross coffin. Since the county came up with the “it has to be Gore Cross” decision their primary argument has been that the Highways Agency will not permit any development directly accessed off the A35 and therefore Gore Cross was the only possible site. That has now been shown to be incorrect, the Highways Agency will permit such development.

Of course the other (unspoken) reason was cost and as the county highways department had decided that the Gore Cross site did not require any mitigation measures for the increased traffic, it was the cheap option as well. Building roundabouts and slip roads will increase costs. As Ron Coatsworth and others have pointed out all along, there could well be a public benefit in using the siting of the Waste Transfer Station (WTS) as an opportunity to resolve safety issues at dangerous junctions on the A35, Miles Cross and Eype especially. Since the Highways Agency “improved” the A35, (in their terms “improved” means faster traffic flows), the improved sections have become the most dangerous on that road in our local area. 

One problem with the Dorset County Council officials and lead councillors having spent so much money trying to impose the Gore Cross solution on us is that now becomes a strong incentive for them to put it there. If it does go to Gore Cross, then they haven’t wasted the money after all, it suddenly becomes money well spent.

I personally think they are still determined to carry on regardless.

Years ago a senior planning officer, now retired, came to talk to us at a Bradpole Parish Council meeting. He told us that the County would site a new WTS at Gore Cross. When councillors responded by asking him “What if the inpectors’ reports into the Local Plan and Local waste plan come down against it”, he replied, “It’s going to Gore Cross no matter what the inspectors say”. The inspectors’ reports did both say that the WTS should not be built there, but the County’s dictatorial attitude has continued to this day.

The County try to say that time is running out, it has taken years to get this far and the objectors are holding up the delivery of a vital local facility which will save a great deal of council tax payers money in “tipping away” payments.

Yet a careful inspection of council records and minutes show that the council was aware years ago that SITA, who had the waste contract and were responsible for providing a new WTS facility, were not making progress on this.

When Steve Burdis came in as the new Waste Management head he noted that where SITA had built a WTS for the county, it had cost an excessively large amount of money to buy back off them.

So the county decided to let it lie until the SITA contract had expired and build their own facility.

That is why all that time was lost, that is why the people who live right next door to the South Street site have had to suffer years of extensions to the “temporary” planning permission for that site, years of noise, smell, flies and wind blown rubbish.

That is why the county has paid and continues to pay a great deal of money every year to cart away rubbish to tip at Warmwell and Crossways.

That is why the county will try to put the WTS at Gore Cross despite everything that has passed in these last 15 years: short-term expediency, looking for the lowest up-front cost and the natural reluctance of a bureaucracy to take any but the easiest course.

What is lacking here is clear-sighted and determined leadership, a county council that will fight for what is best for Dorset rather than what is cheap and easy.

Steve Spear is a leading member of the pressure group NOWTS and vice-chairman of Bradpole Parish Council - Bradpole is the parish on the north / north-western side of what is normally just called Bridport.