Knowsley Council Logo
   
Policy MW5: Waste Management and Treatment Facilities
 

1.  Proposals for new waste management facilities (or for the enlargement or amended operation of existing facilities) will be permitted where they are seen to be meeting the strategic objectives set out in Policy MW4, subject to an assessment of their likely environmental impact or other harm. In determining applications for new or enlarged waste management facilities regard will be had to whether the proposed development would cause significant and unacceptable harm to any of the following:

a)  environmental resources or assets;

b)  the visual character of the surrounding area;

c)  the amenities of occupiers of nearby property (particularly residential property or other environmentally sensitive uses such as schools, hospitals or specialist industrial or business uses such as food processing and high technology uses) in terms of visual amenity, noise, vibration, dust, windblown material, smells, litter, vermin, air, land or water or other nuisance;

d)  air safety, (including the need to safeguard the airspace around Liverpool John Lennon Airport and avoid birdstrike hazard);

e)  road safety and highway capacity.

2.  Proposals for waste management facilities should also be compatible with any approved regeneration strategy for the area in which they are proposed to be located.

3.  Proposals for waste management facilities must include facilities for the recovery of materials for re-use and recycling and / or the recovery of energy from waste.

4.  Planning permissions for temporary waste management uses and facilities may be made subject to planning conditions requiring reinstatement of the site, followed by after-care, to enable the subsequent use of the site for purposes agreed with the local planning authority.

5.  Proposals for new superstores, supermarkets and other appropriate large developments with their own car parks, which are acceptable in principle, will only be permitted provided that recycling facilities are designed as an integral part of the development, so as to minimise their impact on amenity and traffic circulation.

 

 

Explanation MW5

12.24

Policy MW5 applies to proposals for all forms of waste management facility.  It therefore covers:

-  waste transfer stations, waste reception and recycling facilities, scrapyards, aggregates and soil recycling facilities, and Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs);

-  composting;

-  energy from waste facilities;

-  waste water (sewage) and sewage sludge treatment plants; and

-  landfill proposals (which also need to satisfy the criteria in policy MW6).

12.25

These operations and uses can contribute in differing ways to the management of waste and at different levels in the waste hierarchy.  The government’s policies on waste are set out in Planning Policy Statement 10 Sustainable Waste Management (PPS10) and are augmented by Waste Strategy 2000 which sets national targets for recycling.  As far as is possible, as explained under Policy MW4, local authorities should seek to minimize the production of waste and thereafter to facilitate its re-use, or recycling and the recovery of energy from materials which cannot be re-used or recycled.  Proposals for waste management developments which accord with this overall strategy will be permitted where they will not have a significant unacceptable harmful impact on the local environment.  The locational criteria given in Annex E of PPS10 may be referred to in assessing the suitability of a proposed site.

12.26

The criteria set out in Policy MW5 will be reviewed in the context of the potential future adoption by the Council of the Joint Merseyside Local Development Document on waste. However, there will be circumstances where energy recovery from waste management and treatment facilities will not be practicable; for example, where landfill or landraise uses inert materials such as construction demolition and excavation waste.

Procedures

12.27

To ensure that the environmental effects of waste management facilities are fully considered proposals must be accompanied by an Operations Statement, and (unless the proposal is of a permanent nature), a Restoration and Aftercare Plan, prepared to a specified and acceptable standard.

12.28

Most forms of waste management, in addition to a planning permission, require a waste management permit from the Environment Agency. Where this is the case, detailed conditions are normally placed on the operation controlling its environmental effects. Planning conditions will, however, be used where these would not duplicate controls under the licensing or other statutory provisions.

Next

 
Ealing Council Unitary Development Plan
top