At the Cabinet meeting on 8 September, councillors will be considering the following recommendations to the full Borough Council meeting on 22 September:
- that approval is given for a further six-week period of public pre-application consultation that will give an opportunity for suggestions for alternative sites and provide information for public scrutiny including the:
(i) case for a shared waste hub;
(ii) site selection criteria;
(iii) process of site selection;
(iv) sustainability appraisal; and,
- subject to the approval of full council, funding of £220,000 (£112,000 FHDC and £108,000 SEBC), as detailed in Section 3 of Report No: CAB/SE/15/050, be approved and for this to be allocated from the respective Council's Strategic Priorities and Medium Term Financial Strategy Reserve to enable this project to progress.
In a letter to the Parish Council dated 29 July, Cllr John Griffiths, Leader of the Council, stated that "in the Autumn, after the Summer holiday period, we will be placing further information in the public domain for scrutiny and comment. This will include more information explainng why we think the concept of an operational hub is a good idea, the site selection criteria we used to assess potential sites and all the sites we have considered to date".
While the Parish Council welcomes the further period of public consultation it is at a loss to understand how Cabinet Report CAB/SE/15/050, to be considered on 8 September, can assert that Hollow Road Farm is the [Council's] preferred location. At the full council meeting on 7 July 2015 your Borough Councillors were unequivocal in their view that the Hollow Road Farm site was not a sensible option and that other sites should be thoroughly investigated.
It is therefore worrying that instead of the Borough Council proactively looking at alternative sites the Cabinet paper calls for the public to put forward credible alternatives to Hollow Road Farm.
The Borough Council is aware of the other potential sites. The Borough Council should scrutinise all known potential sites to the same degree as at Hollow Road Farm and publish their findings so that the process is fully transparent.
Parish Councillors plan to attend the Cabinet meeting and will be lobbying Borough Councillor, Rebecca Hopfensperger to ask what action, if any, the Borough Council have taken to look at other sites.
Further information will follow the Cabinet meeting on 8 September.