Draft Regulation 18 Sandwell Local Plan

Preferred Areas for New Waste Facilities

13.38 The identification and delivery of new waste management facilities will make a significant contribution towards meeting new capacity requirements set out above and will meet the aims and objectives of the Plan.

Justification

13.39 The Sandwell Local Plan is a strategic plan and therefore it focuses on safeguarding strategic waste sites. The quantity of waste Sandwell is projected to manage (included imported waste) is predicted to increase from 1.75 million tonnes (mt) in 2021 to 2.1 mt in 2040-41, equating to an increase of 23% or 1.1% per annum. The SLP will also need to give appropriate protection to other waste sites.

13.40 Waste facilities are an essential part of the infrastructure of an area; hence provision must be made in the Local Plan to deliver facilities and enable the objectives of moving waste up the hierarchy.

13.41 Certain forms of waste infrastructure are relatively specialised or of strategic scale or are in other ways particularly important in terms of the contribution they make to the overall network. However, and in combination, all facilities can contribute to delivering these objectives.

13.42 National Planning Policy for Waste (NPPW) requires the Waste Management Authorities to identify suitable sites and areas for waste management in Local Plan documents. Several specific locations were identified in the Black Country Waste Study 2020, where new waste management facilities could be located.

13.43 When deciding which areas should be allocated, waste planning authorities should assess their suitability against a range of criteria:

1. the extent to which the site or area will support the other policies set out in the NPPW;
2. physical and environmental constraints on development, including existing and proposed neighbouring land uses;
3. the capacity of the existing and potential transport infrastructure to support the sustainable movement of waste and products arising from resource recovery, seeking when practicable and beneficial to use modes other than road transport, and;
4. the cumulative impact of existing and proposed waste disposal facilities on the well-being of local community, including any significant adverse impacts on environmental quality, social cohesion and inclusion or economic potential.

13.44 The NPPW advises that when identifying suitable sites and areas for waste, waste planning authorities should consider opportunities for on-site management of waste where it arises. This is addressed in Policy SWA1.

13.45 The NPPW also recommends looking at a broad range of locations for the development of new waste infrastructure, including industrial sites (particularly where there are opportunities to co-locate waste management facilities together). Priority should be given to the re-use of previously developed land, sites allocated for employment use and redundant agricultural buildings (NPPW, paragraph 4).

13.46 As the strategy towards sustainable waste management involves broadening the range of waste management facilities available in the Black Country it is necessary to identify a range of opportunities that can accommodate different types of operation and technology. Many waste operations are similar to industrial processes and can be accommodated in Local Employment Areas.

Identification of Preferred Sites

13.47 It is not proposed to allocate specific sites for waste in the Local Plan because no new sites likely to be deliverable within the plan period have been identified, apart from sites that already have planning permission (NPPF, 16, 35, Annex 2). To have sufficient confidence to allocate a site, it would need to be actively promoted for a waste management use by the Council, a landowner and / or a commercial waste operator.

Identification of Preferred Areas

13.48 Several employment areas have been identified in the BCWS as being most suited to the development of new waste recovery, treatment, and transfer infrastructure. These sites were identified through a three-stage screening process followed by an assessment of employment locations and selected sites promoted through the 'call for sites' which fell outside of the excluded areas^[181].

13.49 Waste site options within the resulting 'refined study area' were then identified in consultation with the Council. These were then subjected to two further rounds of assessment:

1. Stage 4: Positive Local Factors - using criteria similar to Stage 1 to identify characteristics likely to be attractive to waste operators and to encourage delivery of new waste infrastructure; and
2. Stage 5: Detailed Non-Spatial Assessment – focusing on site constraints, potential land use conflicts and transport/ access constraints likely to be a potential barrier to delivery of new waste infrastructure.

13.50 The results of the assessments are presented in Appendix M of the BCWS and are summarised in Table 5.10 of the main report. These areas are considered least likely to give rise to land use conflicts, and in several cases, there is already co-location of existing waste facilities to which new sites would contribute.

Table 13 - Preferred Areas for new waste facilities in Sandwell

13.51 While most types of waste facilities are likely to be acceptable in all Local Employment Areas, the list of facilities acceptable on Strategic Employment Areas is much shorter. They will normally be restricted to fully enclosed operations that fall within Use Classes B1 (c) or B2 and are already classified as employment uses, or sui generis operations that would be compatible with a Strategic Employment Area location and would not compromise existing or potential future employment uses falling within Use Classes E(g)(ii), E(g)(iii), B2 or B8.

13.52 Certain waste operations may be acceptable on employment land not identified as strategic or local employment areas for long-term retention in employment land use. However, given the status of these sites and the potential that they will be developed for a non-employment use, the Council is only likely to grant a temporary permission for waste development in these types of location.

13.53 The policy recognises that some types of waste operation involve the processing of waste in the open air and are therefore unlikely to be suitable on employment sites; for example, the disposal of inert waste onto or into land.