Sellindge remains united against sludge plant
Published: 18-01-2010
13 January 2010
Sellindge Public Meeting about the proposed waste treatment plant at Otterpool Quarry
Attendance – 140
Ronald Lello, Chairman of the Sellindge & District Residents Association (SDRA), and Cllr Susan Carey explained that the Kent County Council (KCC) planning committee had been intending to make a site visit to Otterpool Quarry that afternoon and hold a public meeting this evening. Weather conditions were such that it was agreed that Councillors would not get a representative view of the site and so it, and the public meeting, have been postponed to 8th February.
Cllr Carey suggested that the application is likely to be heard on 16th March.
SDRA had decided to continue with the public meeting to give an opportunity for local residents to find out the latest developments in the application for the waste plant. Members of the committee presented some of the main points that they had identified with the Countrystyle Application.
Ronald:
“The Airport Café has been running for around 70 years and they reckon they serve 50,000 meals a year. The Environment Agency makes a clear recommendation that no food preparation should be within 250m of a waste management site or anaerobic digester – this isn’t a mandatory but strongly urged. It may threaten café business.”
“What about the other half of the site? It seems likely that the waste plant will expand in future and so this is the start of the industrialisation of the area. It is a bit of a scare story, but not out of the realms of possibility.”
“When it goes wrong, the experience from Germany is that the smell will be unbelievable. Do Countrystyle have the skills to operate the plant.”
“A petition will be presented to the Cllr Carey at the planning meeting – it has been signed by 96% of the residents of Sellindge, plus many more from the surrounding area.”
Donald:
“A study by Liverpool University gave a positive view for anaerobic digestion, but did highlight a number of problems – problems that are not adequately addressed by the Countrystyle application:
- air pollution from vehicle movements
- should be away from residential areas
- dust and odours are a problems
- vermin are a problem
- Shredding and pre-treatment of the incoming waste is noisy
- Litter can cause a problem, if not tightly managed.”
Bob:
“The application is split into many sections and show sheer ineptitude. It should show what is going to be built but the plans show two conflicting site access arrangements. There are contradictions between different elements of the application, for example the landscape assessment shows a two-storey brick building with a pitched roof, yet other plans show a single-storey ‘porta-kabin’ type building.”
“We are worried that different KCC officers will look at their relevant parts of the application and not consider the contradictions across the whole of the piece.”
“Another issue is that if their plans are to be believed, they will have to lower the land level of the site by up to 4 metres and the perimeter trees will be on an impossibly steep bank for them to survive or reach the height of growth portrayed in the photomontages.”
“I can’t see how it can be seen as acceptable.”
Les:
“We don’t know how much water they are going to use and pump out. The groundwater is very high – only 55cm down in the last few weeks. Removing 4 metres of soil will mean that they will be in the groundwater – which means that the attenuation ponds will be ineffective because they will be filled by groundwater, not rainwater from storms.”
“There are no public sewers for the site so they will have a large foul water tank to pump out, which will be sitting in groundwater for part of the year.”
Quotes from the floor:
“Is this a village or an industrial estate?”
“There needs to be more small-scale composting rather than trucking this material around.”
“The traffic in Newingreen will be unacceptable, I can’t get out of Stone Street in the morning as it is.”
“Westenhanger Castle has just invested £4million in restoration work and the venue is used for weddings and other functions – how could we do that successfully if we are downwind of this sludge plant?”