Tuesday 14 January 2020

After DCC’s climate emergency declaration – and “comments in the public domain about how the road trips can be justified” – Council pushes AI for further information

As we watch our planet burn, we know, according to analysis in the Financial Times, that if every company acted like LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – we would be heading for a +6°C world, enough to "wipe out most life on the planet".



Apparently, the climate emergency is top of the agenda @DevonCC:


Chief Executive Phil Norrey told members of Devon County Council’s ruling Cabinet on 12 June 2019:
This is not about gestures, this is about action
If it’s not about gestures, how has the Council's declaration of a climate emergency affected its actions on planning decisions? One recent decision taken was the approval of planning application DCC/4135/2019. We posted about the application, which proposed:
Change of use from In-Vessel Composting Facility to Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA) Recycling Facility to import and process up to 90,000 tonnes of IBA per annum, Former TEG In Vessel Composting Site, Stuart Way, Hill Barton Business Park, Exeter
The officer’s report put before the Development Management Committee did indeed look at the impact the proposal would have on climate change, making the case it would lead to reduced CO2 emissions:
Other Environmental Considerations (Including Climate Change)
6.29. Paragraph 148 of the National Planning Policy Framework requires that “the planning system should support the transition to a low carbon future in a changing climate”, while Devon County Council has declared a climate emergency and committed to facilitating the reduction of Devon’s carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050. The scope for individual planning applications to contribute to these initiatives will be dependent on the nature and scale of the development being proposed, and relevant considerations are outlined below.
6.31. Given these requirements, the application would also allow the IBA to be managed and utilised closer to the source of the waste. It is understood that alternative locations closer to the Plymouth energy from waste facility have been considered but have proved undeliverable. Whilst HGVs will still be required to transport material between the facilities, this is a much shorter distance than the current arrangements which see the IBA from Plymouth shipped to the Netherlands. The applicant has provided a comparison of the estimated CO2 emissions generated from the transportation to the Netherlands and Hill Barton and this shows that shipping the material to the Netherlands generates approximately 3.5 times as much CO2 as the road transportation to Hill Barton. This assessment is considered reasonable and would lead to reduction in CO2 emissions.
So, as we watch our planet burn, what additional information – on carbon emissions, alternatives etc – would be made available to the planning committee that decides on Aggregate Industries' proposal to quarry Straitgate Farm and then haul each 29 tonne load of as-dug material a round trip of 46 miles for processing, 2.5 million miles in all, to a location that already has millions of tonnes of sand and gravel reserves and resource?

Documents released under a recent Freedom of Information request show that, on 29 May 2019, Devon County Council wrote to Aggregate Industries:
Following the County Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, we have been asked to do more in our committee reports to consider this issue in finer detail.
This is the current requirement:
“I have been advised by Democratic Services that we need to include ‘Climate Change Impact’ in Cabinet/Committee reports (This was mentioned by Councillor Croad at yesterday’s Council meeting). Democratic Services have issued revised guidance as follows on a required paragraph. Please could you remember this when drafting/approving reports.
Environmental Impact Considerations (Including Climate Change)
Summary of all environment and environmental related issues (including climate change impact) including not only any direct impact on the environment and mitigating activity/work, but the socio-economic impact and sustainability of any proposals ... the likely impact on carbon emissions (or offsetting) ... referring to any formal Environmental Impact Assessment or options appraisal undertaken.
Describe the effects .... are they positive, negative or neutral ... factually! It does not necessarily need to be a balancing exercise between the extremes. Major schemes should detail the economic impact/benefits.”
Clearly this is up to the case officer, but if you are able to provide me with more up to date information about alternatives and with any up to date economic data that would be really helpful. You will understand that this report will be subject to heavy scrutiny and that there are already comments in the public domain about how the road trips can be justified when there are alternative reserves available closer to the process plant.
On 25 September 2019, Devon County Council wrote to Aggregate Industries again:
…I would however welcome a statement of where AI is with the remainder of the requests for additional environmental information, and in particularly the revised sustainability appraisal I recommended you to provide following the DCC declaration of a climate emergency.
On 7 January 2020, in an email to us from Devon County Council’s FOI team:
3. The revised sustainability appraisal has not been received as yet, therefore we do not hold this information. The Planning service recommendation was made following the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency.
No doubt Aggregate Industries will eventually come up with some cock and bull story – as before. But as we posted in AI’s sustainability argument for Straitgate blown away with PSV mileage calculations and AI’s resurrected plant at Hillhead has enough material nearby to take it beyond 2050:
...each 28.5 tonne load of high PSV material from Straitgate would necessitate a staggeringly unsustainable 417 miles of transportation for production, BEFORE any onward delivery. In other words, high PSV material from Straitgate would have to travel over 3x the return-trip distance of material from Greystone, an AI quarry in Cornwall also with high PSV material.
But seemingly, Aggregate Industries doesn't care about CO2 emissions. As we posted last year, Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again.




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