Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

Thank you for inviting the Energy from Waste Association (EWA) to comment on the above Royal Commission Study.

EWA is a non-profit making Trade Association representing the key developers and operators of energy from waste (EfW) plants in the UK. The Association's membership includes major waste companies active in creating and implementing sustainable waste management solutions including recycling, composting, EfW and landfill. These companies have many years of continuous operating experience and have access to state-of-the-art technology complying with strict environmental standards.

EWA welcomes the Royal Commission's study to assess whether the various regimes responsible for setting and achieving environmental goals provide an effective, accountable and transparent way of protecting the environment. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on these and associated issues and accordingly submit responses on the following specific questions raised:

Question 1(h): What are the implications of long-term risks, such as those posed by climate change or persistent waste, for environmental planning? Can planning systems become drivers for limiting the extent of damage from unavoidable climate change?
The EfW industry has a vital role to play in meeting the requirements of both the Landfill Directive (through the diversion of waste from landfill) and the UK Climate Change Programme (through the generation of renewable energy). EfW is an important "renewable" in terms of being CO₂ neutral and saving on the rapidly depleting fossil fuel reserves. EfW therefore has a prominent place in the country's future waste management practices and Climate Change Programme and it is imperative to ensure that planning permission for new facilities can be obtained expeditiously. Efficient and effective planning systems certainly have the potential to minimise the extent of damage caused by climate change.

Question 3(a): Does the current system need "fixing"? What gaps, unnecessary duplication and conflicts exist in present arrangements for environmental planning?
Government Policy is such that planning permission for new EfW plants relies on the identification, by Waste Local Plans, of preferred sites for each type of waste treatment/disposal method. However, EWA is very concerned that Waste Local Plans (WLP) currently being prepared or shortly under review may not adopt the "best way" forward for identifying these sites. EWA predicts that this may result in the Government experiencing great difficulty in the near future in implementing Waste Strategy 2000 and meeting the statutory recycling and landfill diversion targets stipulated therein. EWA urges Government Offices to be more vigorous in their vetting of draft WLPs and raise objections where the drafts fail to identify preferred sites and fail to justify the reasons for the difficulties in identifying sites in certain locations.

Question 3(d): Are present arrangements for environmental planning efficient and cost-effective? Can the wish to speed up the land use planning process be reconciled with effective environmental protection?
In a planning enquiry, costs may be awarded against a party if that party has behaved unreasonably and this behaviour has given rise to wasted or unnecessary expenditure on the part of the claimant. EWA is of the opinion that Inspectors appointed by the Secretary of State should be more willing to grant costs against Local Authorities who either pursue "non-planning" grounds of objection or fail to adequately support their objections. This would reduce the number of public inquiries, thereby saving significantly on public and private funds and speeding up the development of new EfW plants.

Question 3(e): Are the mandates and procedures of the pollution control bodies appropriate to their environmental planning responsibilities? Are these responsibilities appropriate? Is it practical to have parallel decisions on land use planning and pollution control?
EWA regards the Environment Agency as being very effective in assessing applications for Integrated Pollution Control Authorisation, however, many interest groups and the general public at large are very sceptical of any environmental assessment of emissions from proposed EfW plants. EWA is of the opinion that a general Policy Statement from the Environment Agency relating to the compliance by plants with emission requirements would be useful for the public and that Ministerial support would greatly accelerate the production of such a document. This should improve the general public's understanding of emissions and could, in the long term, help reduce the number of public inquiries on new EfW developments and hence speed up the planning process. We do, therefore, see a strong link between land use planning and pollution control and would welcome parallel decisions on these issues.

The Energy from Waste Association is particularly concerned about the unwieldy nature of the current land use planning regime and strongly encourages the Royal Commission to give serious consideration to our comments and suggestions above.

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