Bexhill named as "Preferred Option" for landfill

Picture in week 40: landfill

caption: MP Greg Barker with Cllrs Brian Gadd, Joanne Gadd, Patrick Douart and his wife, Jimmy Carroll and Paul Lendon launching the new campaign against a landfill

East Sussex County Council named the Turkey Road excavation as their preferred choice in a 133 page document released this week outlining their core strategy for waste production in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex until 2026.

At a meeting last Wednesday, ESCC Cabinet approved a planning timescale which sees applications discussed next year and work beginning in 2012.

Key local figures reacted swiftly to the news, with local MP Greg Barker calling a public meeting to launch a campaign against the proposals.

Nick Hollington, chair of the Bexhill Against Landfill Incineration group, labelled plans: "a pernicious proposal with a devastating effect on the whole town of Bexhill."

Rother District Council also oppose the plans. In a meeting on Monday, Nick asked Leader of the Council Carl Maynard if he recognised "the egregious effect such a landfill, if implemented, would have on the town of Bexhill and that it would set back, if not nullify, the Council's efforts to achieve its regeneration?"

Cllr Maynard responded, saying: "Rother District Council had consistently and fundamentally opposed the inclusion of the land at Pebsham and Ashdown Brickworks in the Waste Local Plan."

The relevant section of the waste plan reads, under the Preferred Option Selection heading: "The Waste Local Plan currently allocates Ashdown Brickworks as potentially suitable for Landfill.

"Ashdown Brickworks offers a substantial mineral void close to one of the major urban areas of waste arisings in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove."

Having been cleared by ESCC, the strategy now looks set for approval by Brighton and Hove City Council on October 15.

A six week period of public consultation will follow.