News from Peterborough City Council

Local people will be asked to think about how Peterborough will dispose of its waste and where it will excavate construction materials in future during two separate public consultation exercises beginning in September.

 

Early in September residents will receive a brochure explaining that Peterborough City Council will be submitting plans to build improved recycling facilities and a new energy-from-waste plant.  There will also be several public roadshows giving residents opportunities to learn more.

 

The new facilities, to be located in the Fengate area, are designed to support the city council's commitment to raise recycling of discarded household materials beyond 65 per cent by 2020 and to use non-recycled waste as fuel to generate electricity and heat in an energy-from-waste plant.

 

The measures are necessary to avoid environmental damage caused by methane, a potent global warming gas, which is produced by rotting biodegradable rubbish in landfill sites.  They also offer sustainable recycling and disposal solutions when the Dogsthorpe landfill site used for municipal waste is filled and closed by the end of 2013.

 

Roadshows are planned in the Queensgate shopping centre on Saturday 6 September; at Dogsthorpe Community Centre on Wednesday 10 September; in Cathedral Square on Thursday 11 September; and at Serpentine Green shopping centre, Hampton, on Saturday 13 September.

 

The second consultation, lasting from 8 September to 17 October, focuses on the preferred option locations for the extraction of construction materials such as sand, gravel, limestone and brick clay and for new waste management facilities for the period up to 2026.

 

These proposals are contained within the Minerals and Waste Plan drawn up by Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.  They are needed to cope with the demands of continuing population growth and to meet government requirements.

 

Susan Marsh, a principal minerals and waste planning officer with the city council, said:  "We have to identify locations where construction materials can be excavated to meet the needs of Peterborough's growth.  We also need to identify a wide range of potential recycling, bulking up, processing and disposal sites for all types of discarded materials, including that produced by households, business and construction and demolition activities."

 

In addition to coping with the recycling and waste disposal demands of local people, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area is obligated to make provision the disposal of waste from London, estimated at 5.1 million tonnes (just less than 5% of the total waste to be managed in the area) in the period up to 2026.

 

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Plan will be subject to another six-week consultation prior to submission to the Secretary of State in autumn 2009.  A public examination supervised by an independent inspector will be held in summer 2010.  The inspector's report will be published in autumn 2010 leading to the plan's adoption in December 2010.

 

Roadshow displays are planned as follows: Tuesday 9 September Eye; Wednesday 10 September Dogsthorpe Community Centre; Thursday 11 September Wansford Community Hall; Monday 15 September New Link, Lincoln Road; Tuesday 16 September Manor Leisure Centre, Whittlesey; Thursday 18 September Queensgate Centre, Peterborough; Monday 22 September 2 pm to 8 pm Maxey Community Centre; Tuesday 23 September 9 am to 8 pm Serpentine Green, Hampton; Thursday 25 September 10.30 am to 7 pm Peterborough Regional College.  Unmanned displays are also planned.

 

The plan proposes the following preferred option sites in the Peterborough area:

 

Mineral extraction: Maxey Quarry extensions to south and east for sand and gravel; Pode Hole Quarry, Thorney extensions to west and south for sand and gravel; King's Delph, Whittlesey for sand and gravel and brick clay; Middle West Farm, Thorney for sand and gravel to provide materials for construction of the new A1073 road.

 

Waste management: Dogsthorpe extension of existing materials recycling facilities, the householders' recycling centre (HRC), specialist technologies, inert waste recycling, in-vessel composting, and energy-from-waste (combustion of methane); Storeys Bar Road materials recycling facility, energy-from-waste, specialist technologies, and in-vessel composting;

 

Hampton and West of Peterborough (Hampton /Orton area) materials recycling, householders' waste recycling, specialist technologies, and in-vessel composting;  Thornhaugh 1 Quarry landfill for stable non-reactive hazardous waste; Thornhaugh 2 Quarry and Bullimore's Quarry inert landfill and inert waste recycling;

 

Star Pit, Whittlesey landfill for non-hazardous municipal and commercial waste and stable non-reactive hazardous waste, such as building rubble; Saxon Pit, Whittlesey materials recycling, energy-from-waste, in-vessel composting, and inert waste recycling.; Kings Dyke, Whittlesey materials recycling, energy-from-waste, in-vessel composting and inert waste recycling.

 

The plan documents will be made available at www.peterborough.gov.uk/page-4047 from Monday 8 September 2008.

 

 

Notes:

 

Rotting waste emits methane, a climate change gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

 

To reduce this damage the European Union Landfill Directive and UK legislation set targets for all councils to cut the rubbish they dump in landfill sites or face heavy financial penalties.  It means that, despite a growing population, Peterborough must reduce the biodegradable rubbish it landfills to just 34,135 tonnes 75 per cent of 1995 levels by 2009/10; to 22,736 tonnes (50 per cent of the 1995 total) by 2012/13;  and to just 15,909 tonnes (35 per cent of the 1995 total) by 2019/20.

 

The city council adopted a Waste 2020 strategy in February 2007 to meet these targets.  The strategy is based on public consultations that began in 2001 and the recommendations of a councillor-led cross-party Members' Waste and Recycling Working Group, which was advised by independent experts.