Have your say on Community Composting

The future of the Community Composting sites at Thornbury, Hawkesbury and Shireway, Yate was a hot topic for discussion at last night's Frome Vale Area Forum.

Unfortunately although the Lib Dems prioritised protecting the sites in our budget, the other two groups didn't agree. There will be no council funding for them from April 2015 so a consultation is underway on their future. An alternative way of keeping the sites going will have to be found.

The intention had been to keep all three sites going until next April. However Shireway Community Centre has given notice to the council that they want them to leave the site, due to abuse of it, so the site has had to be closed.

You can respond to the consultation online - the deadline is 1 August.

Composting facility proposed in Mayshill

An application has been submitted for a small-scale in-vessel composting facility next to the Mayshill Industrial Estate. The technology proposed uses Ag-Bags (usually used for storing animal feed) as the enclosed container. You can view the plans and make comments on the South Glos website. You have until 16th March to make comments.

Composting plans dropped

Your Focus Team has welcomed news that plans for a composting facility near Tormarton have been dropped. Over the past two years, Lib Dem Councillors have repeatedly raised concerns about the choice of technology but despite plenty of evidence of problems elsewhere in the country were told that their fears were unfounded. Now the Council is introducing a new waste strategy that does not require an In-Vessel Composter (IVC) to be built and which will lead to food waste eventually going to some sort of anaerobic digester.

Now attention turns to alternative uses for the Tormarton site. Cllr Sue Hope says, “Before this site was earmarked for the composting facility, I had called for a Park and Share facility to be set up there. Now this major stumbling block is out of the way, I have asked South Gloucestershire Council to look at the proposal again as a matter of urgency. Many motorists already leave their cars in the car park attached to the picnic site while they share a lift along the motorway. Often vehicles overflow into surrounding roads. Expanding the parking would improve road safety, by keeping parked cars out of the narrow country lanes, and help the environment, by encouraging car sharing.”

Update on IVC

All seems to have gone quiet on the future of the In Vessel Composter planned for Tormarton. A Scoping Opinion, which is is required before a full application is submitted, has been submitted. Alternative technologies could be the way forward, but to date no further news is available on the future of this site.

Composting application to be resubmitted

SITA have withdrawn their application for a composting facility near Tormarton but intend to re-submit a revised application later in the autumn. They say that this will include additional supporting information that has been collected following consultation with the Highways Agency and Environment Agency.

Your local Focus team has welcomed the withdrawal, for which they have been campaigning, but now awaits the new application. We will of course keep local people informed.

Highways Agency withdraw objection to composting plant

The Highways Agency have withdrawn their objection to the proposed composting facility near Tormarton. You can read their letter on the South Glos website.

Tormarton composting facility - Environment Agency withdraw their objection

The Environment Agency have written to South Gloucestershire Council to say that they are now prepared to conditionally withdraw their objection to the planning application for a composting facility near Tormarton. This follows the submission of further technical information by the applicants to the Environment Agency regarding odour management as part of the Environmental Permitting process.

However, there is still the holding objection to the application by the Highways Agency which needs to be resolved before the application could be reported to Committee. There is no indication at this stage of the timescale for the Highways Agency to lift their holding objection.

You can read the letter on the South Glos website.

Composting site plans - delayed yet again

Plans to build a composting site near Tormarton will not now be considered by the DC (East) planning committee until March 5th at the earliest. You have until 26th January to comment on the latest documents submitted by SITA.

Another chance to have your say on composting application

SITA have submitted a number of new documents in an attempt to overcome objections to their plans to build a composting facility near Tormarton. There will now be a new round of consultation, ending on 26th January.

And further still...

SITA's application to build a composting site near Tormarton will now not go to the planning committee until 5th February 2009 at the earliest.

Composting application further delayed

SITA will shortly be submitting additional information to the Council regarding such issues as odour management/bio aerosols, public rights of way, highway safety and landscaping. This means there will be a further consultation and the earliest that the application could be considered by the committee is 8th January 2009.

SITA submit amended composting plans

Cllrs Sue Hope and John Wells at the Site Inspection meeting

SITA have submitted amended plans for a composting facility near Tormarton. There will be a new round of consultation ending on 24th October and the application will not now be considered by the planning committee on 30th October as originally planned.

Planning committee to visit proposed composting site

The planning committee that will decide whether to grant planning permission for a proposed in-vessel composting facility near Tormarton will visit the site on Friday. Their estimated time of arrival is 10am. You can read the officer's report online.

Composting meeting

Tormarton Parish Council have arranged a public display of the SITA planning application from 6.30-9pm on 3rd and 4th September in Tormarton Parish Hall. A Parish Meeting to obtain views on the application (which people from neighbouring parishes are welcome to attend) will be held in Tormarton Parish Hall, starting at 7.30pm on Thursday 4th September.

Tormarton composting application

The consultation period has started for SITA's in-vessel composting application for the highways depot site near Tormarton. You can view the extensive case file and make comments on the South Glos website. According to the website, the deadline for comments is 9 September, but local Councillors were told it was the 8th. Either way, there isn't long to make your views know.

Residents and Parish Councils affected by the previous composting application near Westerleigh were angry that no residents were notified of that application because none lived within 100m of the site. Claire Young took these complaints to the Executive Member at the Select Committee and this time the Council have contacted all those within 900m. This includes some people living in the part of Dodington Parish within Westerleigh ward.

If you would like further updates on this application, you can join our composting mailing list by sending an email to:

focus-on-composting-subscribe@googlegroups.com

IVC application submitted

Earlier this week, SITA submitted the formal planning application for
an In-Vessel Composting facility near Tormarton. It will take around
seven to ten days to register, after which the Council will have a
target of 13 weeks in which to determine it as it is classified as a
major application. There will be a public consultation process and the
application will go before the Development Control (East) committee,
rather than being decided by a planning officer.

Revised lorry movement figures

SITA have clarified the revised lorry movement figures for the proposed composting facility at Tormarton, reflecting the fact that from next year green bins will be collected weekly rather than fortnightly. They are:

14 collection vehicles, doing 2 collection rounds & deliveries per day = 28 deliveries per day = 56 movements

2 "widget" (narrow access) collection vehicles doing 1 round & delivery each per day = 2 deliveries = 4 movements

3 bulkers per day removing compost product = 6 movements. Compost removal will remain the same regardless of weekly or fortnightly collections

Total HGV movements per day = 66 movements per day for weekly collection of organic waste

In addition there will be 6 staff generating 12 light vehicle movements per day.

SITA have still to provide the detailed breakdown of the routes those lorries will be using.

Composting application presentation at Dyrham and Hinton PC

SITA's presentation to Dyrham and Hinton Parish Council on Thursday and the one made by the Parish Council in response provoked a lively and interesting debate. Points made by SITA and Agrivert representatives in response to questions included:

• Both VOSA and the Highways Agency are expected to continue to use their parts of the site, there is no intention to take over areas outside the training agency land.


• They are still working on the detailed traffic assessment. As the vehicles are arriving outside peak times, they don’t expect the impact on the motorway junction to be a problem. They provided revised vehicle movement figures to take account of weekly collections, but Claire Young has written to SITA since the meeting requesting further clarification.


• The facility would revert to SGC-ownership in 2025.


• The capacity required was modelled and provided by South Gloucestershire Council. SITA currently collect 20 000 tonnes of green waste from the kerb-side, 3000tonnes from civic amenity sites that could continue to go to open windrow as it wouldn’t include food waste and expect to collect 5000 tonnes of kitchen waste.


• They denied that they had been unable to use a site in Avonmouth because Tesco didn’t want it next to their warehouse because of fears of contamination.


• Agrivert will have to repay SITA if there are problems with the site in the first two years.


• They conceded it wasn’t ideally located, being on the edge of South Gloucestershire and not near the centres of population, but it has the advantage of being near agricultural land. However they anticipate the end product going on arable land, not grazing land.


• Both SITA and Agrivert insisted this wasn’t a cheapskate option.


• They would not exceed the licensed capacity, aside from that not being allowed it would cause odour problems and result in a poor end product. They mention 30 000 tonnes in the title of the application as that cannot be varied in the way that conditions can, so any increase would have to be through a new planning application.


• The site would be sealed with fences to stop vermin getting in and nets between buildings to keep out birds. It is interesting to note that you cannot graze animals on fields on which the compost has been spread for 8 weeks.


• To pass Animal Byproducts regulations, 27 random tests are carried out and if a single one fails the product has to be landfilled. Agrivert has never had a plant shut in 26 sites across Europe in 14 years.

Claire Young pointed out, as she did at the Westerleigh presentation for the previous application, that it was wrong to say that all of South Gloucestershire outside towns and villages is green belt. She also asked SITA to clarify why they had ruled out the Hallan site that New Earth Solutions are considering. Gareth Phillips of SITA said he had visited the site personally and thinks that both it and a nearby site are unsuitable because there is a problem with access for the "bulkers" that take the compost away.

Composting facility presentation tonight

SITA will make a presentation at Dyrham and Hinton Parish Council tonight (Thursday 26th June). The meeting is at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall.

Composting facility will take weekly green bin collections

It's been confirmed that there will be weekly green bin collections including food from next April, not fortnightly as SITA have been telling residents.

At the Parish Council meeting at Tormarton on Monday, SITA said their plans were based on fortnightly green bin collections, with food being collected in green bins one week, black bins the next.

Lib Dem councillors queried this with Council officers, as the Council has committed to weekly green bin collections from April 2009. It's now been confirmed that SITA's plans should accommodate weekly collections.

Claire Young has asked for SITA to provide revised vehicle movement figures as a matter of urgency.