The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has launched a consultation for its national waste policy, ‘Planning for sustainable waste management’.

This updated policy is designed to replace the Planning Policy Statement 10 of the same name, which was released in July 2005 and revised in March 2011. It sets out a number of ways in which local authorities can plan developments in a sustainable manner.

Details

The policy encourages local authorities to conduct a ‘robust analysis’ of available data and information when planning the introduction of new waste management capacity, and to work with other planning authorities where appropriate.

Furthermore, it states that any waste planning policies should aim to move waste up the waste hierarchy (which has waste prevention at the top, followed by reuse, recycling, recovery and finally disposal) and give priority to the reuse of previously developed land.

Any new planning application should also ‘consider the likely impact on the local environment and on amenity’. As such, waste planning authorities should seek to protect Green Belts, but should also ‘recognise the particular locational needs of some types of waste management facilities when defining detailed Green Belt boundaries’.

There are a number of further environmental concerns to be considered by planning authorities when evaluating waste management projects, including the presence of unpleasant odours, vermin, dust emissions, unacceptable noise levels and the creation of litter. The impact of development on vulnerable water resources and nature conservation, as well as negative visual intrusion upon landscapes of national importance (such as national parks) or heritage sites (such as listed buildings), must also be considered.

Waste management sites must also be well designed so as to ‘contribute positively to the character and quality of the area in which they are located’.

In addition to these concerns, all planning authorities are encouraged to consider the impact of non-waste development on waste management sites and whether this would have an impact on the waste hierarchy. Non-waste development must also be well integrated with waste management facilities, for example on residential premises to ensure a ‘high quality household collection service’.

Waste arisings from construction projects must also maximise reuse or recovery opportunities and minimise off-site disposal.

Finally, local planning authorities should monitor the amount of waste that is recycled, recovered or sent for disposal, as well as the capacity, stock and waste arisings of waste management facilities.

Consultation questions

The consultation itself then asks respondents for their views on the government’s proposed policies and whether they feel any significant changes are needed.

The consultation process will last for eight weeks, ending on 23 September 2013. DCLG states that it is an open consultation to which anyone can respond, although it would ‘particularly welcome’ input from waste planning authorities, local planning authorities, developers, statutory agencies, waste representative organisations and local communities.

The resulting updated policy will sit alongside the Waste Management Plan for England (WMPE), a consultation for which was released on 15 July 2013 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The WMPE does not introduce any new policies, but rather merges the findings of the government’s 2011 review on waste policy and ’current policies under the umbrella of one national plan’.

Read more about the updated national waste planning policy.