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Saturday 30 January 2010

KCC reveals the 5 options for the Lorry Park

In the Recent Updates' section in the top right hand column, a new entry has been added from the Kentish Express, of the 28th January 2010:

KCC reveals the 5 options for the proposed Lorry Park

Just click on the link to see the top and lower parts of page 15.

(Note - click on the first image (top of page 15) to increase its size to more easily read the print, once read then click on the back arrow in the top left of the screen to return, using the same method for the second image (bottom of page 15)

Once you have finished just click on the 'home' page link at the top of the right hand column to return to here.

Monday 25 January 2010

GETTING REAL WITH JUSTICE - extract from page 3 of the Janaury Sellindge Newsletter

We might wonder, what, in society, is ‘due’ to us and what we are ‘due’ to offer society. It has been said that the most important thing due to us is the freedom to discover who and what we are: anything that impedes that, impedes the heart of Justice. Closer to ground level, I think each one of us is due the rays of the sun, clean air, rain and pure water, and fresh unpolluted earth.

Enter Otterpool Lane Quarry site and the proposal of Countrystyle Ltd to build a Waste Treatment Processing Plant there. Various agencies exist to maintain our just dues of sunshine, air, rain and earth, and one of them is the Environment Agency. They recommend that Anaerobic Digestion and the material that has been digested should not be processed or stored less than 250 metres from any habitation where food is being prepared. In Germany and America, similar agencies are recommending best practice to be that habitations and food processing areas should be at least 500 metres away from waste treatment processing.

Now, dead opposite the proposed treatment site at Otterpool Lane, not more than 50 metres away from the Quarry gate, is a well known food processing site in a very human habitation called ‘The Airport Café’. It has been trading for over 40 years and as we all know, it is a café that serves among many other good things, a superb breakfast. And we know the owners Patrick and Julie Breen have worked hard to develop their business. I would say that this hardworking couple pay their dues to our society by providing a good service and continuing to develop their catering standards. Surely they deserve sunshine, clean air, clean water and unpolluted earth. Others too, have homes nearby this proposed site – for a start those living in Newingreen, Stanford and Lympne and 1,300 of us living in Sellindge. And we would all like what is justly due to us. We don’t even want the danger or a possibility of sunshine being obscured by waste processing gases and odours, or air borne diseases, or poisoned water or fouled land. What we want is Justice. And as the flood picture in the January Sellindge Newsletter show, Sellindge is regularly subject to extreme weather conditions that would sweep the waste treatment poisons straight across the A20 right into the Airport Café, into the fields and into the ditches that lead straight to the river Stour. As my Grandchildren would say “Come on Countrystyle – get real!”.

A further meeting has been organised by Kent County Council to be held at Lympne Village Hall on 8th February at 7.00pm (KCC delayed their visit on 13th January due to the snow as they wanted to personally see the site). Please may the young and not so young make every effort to be there even if for a short time. Let us convey to Countrystyle Ltd. our thoughts as to where to stuff their fetid waste and let us reasonably suggest to KCC that waste treatment is best processed far away from human habitations. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Ronald Lello – Chairman Sellindge and District Residents Association

Sunday 24 January 2010

Your Shepway - 13th January Meeting - Article - Read on

In the Recent Updates' section in the top right hand column, a new entry has been added on 24th Janaury to the 'Your Shepway' publication.

On page 3, there is an article covering the meeting at the Village Hall on 13th January.

To read the article

1) Click on the link in the right hand column
2) Click on 'Next at the bottom of the screen in the centre
3) Click on the article at the top of page 3 to 'zoom in'
4) To move the page around on your screen you can either hold the left mouse
cursor whilst dragging the page or use the arrows at the side and
top of the page.

Once you have finished just click the back arrow in the top left of the screen to return back to this page.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Notes from the 13th Janaury 2010 meeting held at Sellindge Village Hall

In the Recent Updates' section on the right, a new entry has been added to the top on the 20th January 2010.

(after reading the notes, just click the back arrow in the top left of the screen to return back to this page)

These are notes of the meeting held at the Sellindge Village Hall on 13th January and were provided by:

Sean Furey
Deputy Director
Protect Kent - The Kent Branch of CPRE

Sunday 17 January 2010

Radio Kent - 16 November 2010 - Sellindge

At the top of the 'Recent Updates' Section in the right-hand column, there is a new link to the BBC Kent show broadcast at 7.00 am on Tuesday 16th November 2010 re the various issues regarding the future of Sellindge.

You can listen to the whole show or go directly to where the Sellindge issues are discussed:

1) near the beginning at 2 minutes and 41 seconds in, and

2) at 41 minutes and 8 seconds in

(please let me know if there are other times and I will include these)

You can move the bar below the large white rectangle to these point to just listen from these points.

Once you have finished listening please just click on the back arrow at the top left of your screen to return to here, the "Home Page".

Friday 1 January 2010

Breaking News - KCC PLANNING HEARING - Otterpool Quarry Waste Treatment - Confirmed 15th Marc

Anaerobic Waste Recycling Plant application – confirmed - 15th March

KCC have confirmed the hearing of the Countryside's Otterpool Anaerobic Waste plant Application will be first on the Agenda at the planning meeting on Tuesday 15th March for consideration.

Please remember that County Councillor Susan Carey says such demonstrations do have a big effect so please make a huge effort to be there. Coaches have been re-booked for Tuesday 15th March to take protesters to County Hall Maidstone. People will need to be at the Village hall by 8.20 am, leaving on the dot at 8.30 am. The early departure is necessary due to the hearing starting at 10 am, the time it takes to get to Maidstone (including rush hour and being market day) and needing to present our Petition and be settled in place before the hearing. If you would like to join us on the coach then we are just asking for a £5 donation to the Residents’ Association.

If you have not already done so, please contact Margaret Ludlow via telephone (01303) 813 369. 

In the right-hand column, at the top of the 'Recent Updates' section (5th coloured section down) are the following 2 documents:

1) Agenda for the whole meeting, and

2 The Otterpool application report 

Just click on each ink to view. Once you have finished click on the back arrow at the top of the screen to return to here. 

yourshepway


Letter to KCC from Sellindge and District Residents Association

SELLINDGE AND DISTRICT RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

Grove House

Sellindge Kent TN25 6JX

Angela Watts

Planning Officer, Planning Applications Group

Invicta House County Hall

Maidstone ME14 1XX

26th January 2010

Dear Angela Watts,

Application No SH/08/124

Construction and operation of a Materials Recycling Facility

Anaerobic Digestion Plant and Associated Office and parking facilities

We are writing to register our continued opposition to the planning application submitted by Countrystyle Recycling Ltd proposing the construction of a Materials Recycling Facility and an Anaerobic Digestion Plant on the site of old workings at Otterpool Quarry.

Summarised here are our central concerns and objections. These will be supported by a detailed Analysis of these submissions which reveal many and various deficiencies in the proposed scheme and the way in which it has been presented to date. We have six key areas of objection, each with various subsections. This Analysis with further information and illustration will be provided as appendices to this document.

Before proceeding however, we have one objection which underlies everything else in our submissions and documents. The proposal to establish an industrial scale recycling plant and anaerobic digester in this rural area is highly significant socially, ecologically and industrially. If the proposal succeeds the impact on the locality will be considerable and profound. In addition, any precedent set now is bound to be reflected in future policy for the area. There can be little doubt that the character of this part of Kent will be drastically and fundamentally changed if this proposal succeeds. Countrystyle and SLR Consulting have had two years to properly prepare documents and plans to present to Planning Officers at KCC. In view of the serious nature of the proposal we would expect that submitted descriptions and plans would be accurate, factual and clear. However the plans and descriptions are often inaccurate, unclear and in places, unmistakably misleading.

Some written documents bear little resemblance to the plans they describe. These inadequacies are prolific. We are left with a view that either these submissions to the Planning Officers are inept, incompetent and reflect a high degree of un-professionalism or that they are deliberately variable, thus enabling Countrystyle and their engineers a wide range of options were they to obtain the permission they seek. Whatever the reason, we have grave fears that a company which appears so careless and administratively lax should be allowed to build and manage a sophisticated industrial plant, processing highly noxious material, so close to human habitation, businesses and busy roads. We urge that the current plans and descriptions be rejected before any further consideration is given.

Core Objection 1.

There are serious discrepancies between the drawn plans, and there are further inconsistencies with written descriptions and illustrations.

Examples of the contradictions, inconsistencies and ambiguities include :-

a) The means of access to and from the site is ambiguous, showing differing arrangements on different drawings.

b) The office block is alternately shown as single storey, flat roofed and then as two storeys with pitched roof.

c) There are discrepancies concerning layout, function and size of buildings. Some buildings are not described at all.

Core Objection 2.

The proposal does not adequately describe the situation regarding the use, disposal and pollution of water.

Amongst our other concerns here are:-

a) Examination of levels stated on the drawings shows that the applicant proposes to reduce existing ground levels by as much as 5 metres, and an average approaching 4 metres. We estimate a minimum of 50,000 cubic metres of material will need to be transported away from the site. Some of this material is known to be contaminated from a previous use. The application gives no detail of how this volume of material will be dealt with.

b) The ground water levels data given by SLR is selective, referencing only a single dry summer period. This misrepresents the true situation and is misleading. The Environment Agency has asked for wider annual information which as yet has not been provided. Our own readings show that water levels can be as little as 0.6 metres below the ground surface following rainy periods, usually in winter. Rainfall statistics recorded in the village show that in each decade over the past 50 years Sellindge has suffered huge inundations of rainwater – flooding is not an uncommon event in Sellindge.

c) Simply using the limited water table figures given by the applicant, careful examination of the plans shows that both surface water attenuation ponds lie below the water table. The attenuation ponds are shown linked and the smaller pond will be constantly draining into the second. They will therefore be permanently full of water and incapable of attenuating the rate of surface water discharge from the site.

d) There are no mains sewer connections for foul or surface water, serving the quarry site. The application shows that foul and noxious wastewater will be collected on site in a holding tank, and then be pumped out into tankers and removed from site. No information is given concerning size, depth or capacity of storage tank to deal with either normal or abnormal spillage conditions and no information on how many vehicle movements are required daily to dispose of this waste. The Environment Agency demands that none of this facility must ever be below the water table.

Core Objection 3.

The proposal is out of scale with the surrounding landscape. The industrial sheds proposed will be highly visible intrusions into the local landscape and will have serious visual and ecological impact on the wider locality.

Amongst our concerns here are:-

a) Inspection of historic mapping and aerial photography (including information from the Kent Landscape Information Service) shows that the development of the site had little previously built form, and nothing constituting the industrial character falsely proclaimed on the applicants submission documents. However the applicant's Preliminary Contamination Assessment, dated April 2008, accurately described the site as “...located within a predominantly agricultural area.”

b) The sheer scale of the buildings will dominate the landscape. Local facilities include important Kent tourist attractions such as Port Lympne Animal Park, Folkestone Racecourse and Westenhanger Castle, which English Heritage have supported with grant-aided investment of £4m; all these will be severely affected.

c) The applicant has provided a limited number of photomontage views of the site. Viewpoint 2 eminently illustrates the visual impact and enormity of the 93metre long 30 metre wide and 12.5metre high Materials Recycling shed.

d) The development will disrupt active and protected species habitats on site and endanger downstream habitats.

Core Objection 4.

The application ignores the presence of habitation and businesses in close proximity and the impact on those of the proposed plant.

Amongst our concerns here are:-

The blatant contravention of guidelines issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. ‘Planning for Waste Management Facilities: A Research Study’ prepared by Enviros Consulting and published August 2004 by the ODPM which state that:

‘Where possible, (anaerobic digestion) facilities should be located at least 250 metres from sensitive properties.’ Sensitive properties include both domestic and business premises. In this instance five domestic dwellings and ten businesses will be within this zone as determined by SLR.

The Environment Agency Standard Rules for the operation of an Anaerobic Digestion Facility (including the use of the resultant biogas) states that the activities shall not be carried out within 250 metres of any off-site building used by the public, including dwelling houses. The Airport Café has residential accommodation on the first floor and is just 50 metres from the site entrance and 100 metres from the Anaerobic Digester Plant.

b) The Airport Café has traded continuously for over 60 years. It serves over 50,000 meals per year and it’s high reputation is well known across the South-East region. This business has invested heavily in improvements over recent years and has planning permission for further development. Planning permission has also been granted to build an environmentally sensitive development of ten workshops and craft units to the rear of the Airport Café on the area currently used for car breaking. The success of these businesses will be impacted negatively by the proposed development.

c) The proposal is inconsistent with Shepway District Council’s emerging plan to develop the locality for housing at Folkestone Racecourse, Lympne and Sellindge.

Core Objection 5.

The proposal offends the local community by considerably increasing traffic flows.

a) Traffic flows through Newingreen, Sellindge and Lympne on the A20 are already subject to considerable congestion especially at the Newingreen Junction with the Hythe Road and at the traffic lights by the M20 bridge in Sellindge.

b) Shepway District Council’s emerging plans for new houses in this area will bring substantial amounts of increased domestic and commercial traffic onto the A 20. The applicants assessments make no provisions here.

c) The A20 route to Junction 11 on the M20 is not suitable for carrying significant increased volumes of HGV traffic. Although the recorded accident data shows only a small number of serious personal injury accidents, the same data shows a great number of minor incidents. The inevitable increase in the number of these that will follow directly from the increase in HGV movements is a factor that should not, and must not be undervalued. All the more so considering the existing quixotic traffic arrangements at Newingreen.

Core Objection 6.

The applicant provides no site specific justification for locating the proposed facility onto this site.

a) Government planning guidance and County Policy give specific criteria to be satisfied in the event of an unallocated site being considered as a windfall proposal. The proposal does not comply with the locational guidance set out in policies W3, W9 and W10 of the Kent Waste local Plan that seeks to locate such uses in existing industrial areas.

b) Reference to available data or commentary from any Internet search of Waste Sorting Operations and Anaerobic Digestion plants, demonstrates concerns and anxieties regarding air pollution, dust, noise, odours, flies, rats and airborne diseases and aerosol emissions.

c) There is no justification for siting industrial processing of this scale in a rural setting adjacent to village communities, thriving businesses, schools and tourist attractions.

We intend to provide the second part of our response that will contain detailed information shortly. We hope that KCC Planning Officers reject this application and advise the applicant not to appeal,

Yours Sincerely

Ronald S Lello Chairman

On behalf of Sellindge and District Residents Association

KCC reveal the 5 options for the Lorry Park




yourashford

Kentish Express - KCC reveal the 5 options

The top half of Page 15 .........


The lower half of Page 15

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