Recycling of building waste must stop
THE processing and sorting of aggregates and waste material on a site at Port Grat will have to stop immediately, after a retrospective planning application was rejected.
J. H. Mahy Ltd owns the site to the west of the Peninsula Hotel and made the application, but it is understood that it was made on behalf of Tarmac Services, which rents the site.
The land is meant to be used for general storage. The retrospective applications aimed to allow the receipt, mechanical sorting/processing, and storage of waste aggregates prior to their reuse in construction projects.
The applicant estimated that the site has a storage capacity of 5,000 metric tonnes and an anticipated annual throughput of 10,000 MT.
The company wanted processing of waste material to take place for about two weeks, three to four times per year, between 8am and 4pm. They wanted that to be allowed Monday to Friday, as well as Saturday mornings.
There are about 20 residential properties within 200 metres of the site.
Eight letters and emails were sent to planners raising concerns about the use.
They centred around the noise, dust and pollution the work would generate and increased industrial vehicle usage.
The States’ Trading Supervisory Board, in its role as Waste Disposal Authority, noted that the public waste management site for the disposal of inert waste is identified as Longue Hougue reclamation site.
Guernsey Waste recently carried out an open tender exercise for an operator to receive material diverted from Longue Hougue and a contractor was awarded a five-year contract to recycle aggregates. But the site applicant did not apply to take part in the tender process.
‘The effect of the operation being carried out at the above location (and other alternative locations) is to divert material away from the designated public waste management site, which undermines the viability of the States contract for the recycling of aggregates,’ the WDA stated in the planning report.
‘Whilst the Waste Disposal Authority would encourage recycling of aggregates as much as possible, such an industrial process should be carried out on the site where the waste is produced, or if this is not possible, transported to an appropriately located and licensed facility.’
It was also noted that under the Island Development Plan, new waste management facilities should be in key industrial areas, which this is not.
For these reasons the application was rejected and the unauthorised processing of waste material must stop.
It was noted in the decision that a number of Portakabins/storage containers had been placed on the land, for which no planning permission has been granted.
It was ordered that these structures be removed or a retrospective application made.
. Tarmac Services declined to comment on the decision.
