Agenda item

          The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Policy and Resources on the adoption of the Joint Merseyside and Halton Joint Waste Local Plan.

          The Board was advised that Government planning policy required Local Plans to address sustainable waste management. Local Authorities were required to put in place a Local Plan which provided a policy framework and land allocations for new waste management infrastructure to meet the identified needs of each Council.

          Following full Council resolution, Halton entered into a joint arrangement with the five Merseyside District Authorities to prepare the Joint Merseyside and Halton Waste Local Plan (WLP). The Board was advised that the WLP was primarily focused on providing new capacity and new sites for waste management uses and for the delivery of a robust policy framework to control waste development.

          It was noted that the WLP principally contained:

·             a Vision statement to guide future waste management decisions over the next 15 years;

·             strategic objectives and a Spatial Strategy to guide delivery of the Vision;

·             controlling and enabling Development Management Policies designed to provide certainty in planning decisions;

·             site allocations for both local and sub-regional sites which were broadly distributed across all six Council areas; and

·             an Implementation and Monitoring Framework.

Reason(s) for Decision

Government Policy (PPS 10) required that waste must be dealt with in a sustainable way. The Council was producing a Joint Waste Local Plan for the Merseyside sub-region. Drafting of the Plan had reached the stage where the policy framework contained in the Waste Local Plan needed to be subject to public scrutiny.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

The Waste Local Plan had been prepared through a multi stage process. Previous public consultation stages had been completed and were detailed in section 5.2 of the report.

These reports documented the evolution of the Plan and the options for policies and sites that had been considered and rejected. The results of the public consultation, engagement with stakeholders, industry and the Local Authorities and detailed technical assessments, had all been used to inform preparation of the Local Plan. The Preferred Options stage reports set out the alternative options considered.

Implementation Date

The Joint Merseyside Waste Local Plan was scheduled to be adopted by all six partner Districts in the Summer of 2013.

          RESOLVED: That Council be recommended to

1)    note the results of public consultation on the proposed modifications to the Merseyside and Halton Joint Waste Local Plan that was undertaken between November 2012 and January 2013 (Appendix 1);

2)    welcome the report from the Planning Inspector which concluded that, subject to the proposed modifications, the Plan “meets the criteria for soundness in the National Planning Policy Framework” and “provides an appropriate basis for waste planning for Merseyside and Halton over the next 15 years” (Appendix 2);

3)    agree that the Waste Local Plan (Appendix 3) be adopted as part of the statutory development plan by each of the districts on a single date which shall be one working day after the final (sixth) Full Council resolution has been received;

4)    note that several of the adopted Unitary Development Plan saved policies (listed in paragraph 4.11, Table 2 of the report) will be replaced by Waste Local Plan policies including the site allocations; and

5)    grant delegated authority to the Operational Director, Policy, Planning and Transportation, in consultation with the Physical Environment Portfolio Holder to make minor typographical changes to the Waste Local Plan, prior to its final publication.