Safeguarded waste sites and the capacity argument

A safeguarded waste site planning objection is about capacity rather than amenity, and that catches developers who prepared for the wrong argument. Waste planning authorities safeguard existing and allocated waste management sites in their waste local plans, and where a non-waste proposal would displace one, the question the authority asks is whether the county or the area can still meet the waste capacity its plan requires. Noise, odour and vehicle movements matter too, but they are the second argument. Capacity is the first, and it is answered with numbers.

The authority asking may not be the one determining your application. In two tier areas waste is a county function while housing is a district one, which means two sets of officers, two evidence bases and a consultation response that arrives late.

Why waste sites are safeguarded

National waste policy expects waste planning authorities to identify sufficient capacity to manage the waste arising in their area, moving material up the waste hierarchy and handling it close to where it arises. Sites are scarce, planning permission for new ones is hard to obtain, and residential land values outbid waste uses every time. Safeguarding is the policy response.

The National Planning Policy for Waste, published in October 2014, remains the national document, and it expects authorities to consider the effect of non-waste development on existing waste management facilities and on sites allocated for waste use. Alongside it, the waste hierarchy duties in the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 and the self sufficiency and proximity principles shape what a plan has to provide for.

The result is a designation that works differently from an environmental constraint. Nothing about the land is sensitive. The issue is that the use is needed and hard to relocate.

Finding safeguarded sites and what the designation says

Start with the waste local plan for the area, which will list safeguarded and allocated sites, usually with a schedule and a policies map. Then check the planning policy map for the district plan, because safeguarding is sometimes carried through into it.

Four checks worth making:

1. Whether the site is an existing operational facility, a site with planning permission that has not been implemented, or an allocation for future waste use.
2. What capacity the plan attributes to it, in tonnes per annum, and what waste streams it handles.
3. Whether the site holds an environmental permit, and what the permit allows, since a permitted capacity can exceed what the operator currently processes.
4. Whether the plan is up to date, because a plan beyond its review period carries less weight on specific allocations than on strategy.

And permits are the most useful document. An environmental permit records the waste types, the annual throughput limit and the operating conditions, which tells you what the site is actually licensed to do rather than what it is doing this year.

The capacity loss argument and how it is tested

The test is quantitative. Expect to be asked for the capacity the site contributes, the remaining capacity in the plan area without it, the capacity requirement the plan identifies for the relevant period, and whether the loss creates a shortfall. A proposal that removes a small transfer station from an area with surplus capacity is a different case from one that removes a county's only facility for a particular waste stream.

Two arguments carry weight. The first is that equivalent capacity exists or will be provided, evidenced by a specific site rather than an assertion. The second is that the site is not viable in waste use and has not operated for a sustained period, which needs operator evidence, permit surrender records and marketing evidence rather than an observation that the yard looks quiet.

What does not work is arguing that waste uses are unattractive next to new homes. That reverses the policy, and it is the argument the agent of change principle was written to defeat.

Residential development next to an operating site

Where the proposal sits beside rather than on a safeguarded site, the controlling idea is that the newcomer accommodates the existing operator rather than the other way round.

National policy supports existing businesses against unreasonable restrictions imposed because of development permitted after they were established. In practice that means the applicant has to design out the conflict: orientation and layout, standoff distances, acoustic glazing and ventilation that works with windows closed, the position of gardens and balconies, and sometimes a buffer in other ownership.

The evidence set is predictable. A Noise Impact Assessment dealing with plant, vehicle movements and tipping noise against the relevant standards. An Odour Assessment where the site handles organic waste, composting or food waste. Dust and emissions work where the operation generates them, which often brings in an Air Quality Assessment, and the position is tighter where the area is already designated, as set out in the note on development inside an air quality management area.

Design out the problem before you measure it. A layout that puts car parking, a commercial unit or a landscaped bund between the homes and the site boundary makes the acoustic case far easier than one that puts bedroom windows on the boundary and relies on glazing.

Odour, noise and vehicle movements in practice

Three operational realities drive objections, and all three are worth understanding before the assessments are commissioned.

Waste sites work early. Collection rounds start before dawn and vehicle movements concentrate in the period when background noise is lowest, which is when a new resident notices them. An assessment using daytime average levels will miss this entirely.

Odour is episodic rather than constant. Tipping, shredding and the turning of windrows produce short intense releases, and complaint patterns follow those events rather than the annual average. Assessment has to address the episodes.

Heavy vehicles use particular routes, and those routes are often the same ones the new development would use. Where the proposal would change the junction geometry or add parking on the access route, the operator will object on the basis that its licensed operation becomes harder, and that objection is about the permit rather than about planning.

Relocation and replacement capacity

Where redevelopment of a safeguarded site is the objective, relocation is usually the only route to a permission, and it is a long one.

The sequence that works starts with the operator, not the planning authority. Secure an agreement in principle with the operator on a replacement site, identify that site, test its planning prospects, and only then bring forward the redevelopment proposal with the replacement capacity evidenced. Authorities have accepted phased arrangements secured by agreement, with the existing site unable to be redeveloped until the replacement is operational.

Budget for the permit as well as the permission. A replacement facility needs an environmental permit from the regulator, and the permit timescale runs alongside rather than after the planning process. A Waste Management Strategy for the new development is a separate and much smaller document, dealing with how the scheme itself manages its waste, and it should not be confused with the capacity case.

Safeguarding of other infrastructure works on similar logic, and the note on safeguarded wharves and waterside development is a useful comparison for anyone dealing with a designation that protects a use rather than a feature.

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