Still no sign of new composting site

It is now five weeks since SITA withdrew their application to build a massive composting facility in the green belt near Westerleigh.

At the time, they suggested that they were switching their attentions to a nearby brown field site, still in the green belt. Last month Claire Young took the opportunity to question the council's Cabinet member responsible for Waste Heather Goddard.

While agreeing with Claire that the best place for an IVC was on an industrial park, the Executive Member said we don't have such sites in South Gloucestershire. She did say however that SITA are looking at two sites not in the green belt. That would appear to be a change from what SITA had said previously in public.

During the public consultation on the previous SITA application, some residents were concerned that the technology SITA were proposing to use was out of date with a reputation elsewhere for odour problems. When Claire put this to the Executive Member she was told that the Council has the chance to influence the details of the technology but the type of facility is specified in the contract and if a major change of technology was requested the contract would need re-writing, with the costs and risks involved falling on the Council rather than SITA.

Your local Focus team strongly supports weekly food waste collections, so Claire was also keen to find out what fall back plans there are in place if SITA fail to construct a facility in time. The Cabinet member said that SITA were looking at interim arrangements and promised a written response to the question of whether SITA or the Council would bear the cost of this.