Agenda item

Application to modify or discharge Section 106 Planning Obligations to remove the existing waste catchment area and amend permissive path at Sutton Courtenay Landfill Site.

Report by Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change

It is RECOMMENDED that

i)               Oxfordshire County Council enter into a deed of variation to amend the existing Section 106 legal agreement with regards to removing the hinterland restriction and amending the date for the provision of a permissive path.

ii)             The Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change is authorised to enter into negotiations with the applicant and any other parties to the legal agreement with regard to making the variations set out in this report.

The Principal Planning Officer, Mary Hudson, introduced the report and provided a presentation to the Committee. A correction to Table 1 on page 27 was pointed out.

The application was considered by the Planning and Regulation committee on 5^th June 2023 and deferred pending further information. The requested information had been provided and considered and therefore, the application was being brought back to the Committee for decision. The application was a Section 106A application to amend a legal agreement associated with an existing planning permission. The applicant proposed to remove the hinterland obligation so that there would be no geographical limitation on the source of waste. They also proposed a change to the timescale for delivery of a permissive path.

There were no changes to the recommendation of the June report. It was recommended that the application be approved, and a deed of variation was entered into, to amend the legal agreement.

The recommendation was that

i)               Oxfordshire County Council enter into a deed of variation to amend the existing Section 106 legal agreement with regards to removing the hinterland restriction and amending the date for the provision of a permissive path.

ii)              The Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change is authorised to enter into negotiations with the applicant and any other parties to the legal agreement with regard to making the variations set out in this report.

The following points of clarification were provided in response to questions and matters raised by the Committee:

·       The only options were to retain or scrap the boundary, it could not be expanded.

·       The waste was coming from places that had not been expected, however there had been no information that the approved route was being breached.

·       The legal agreement had been scoped very carefully and it ensured that the waste from other places was not included.

·       If the forecasts were met, the landfill would be filled by 2030.

The FCC Environment UK Limited representative, Mr Mark Cheetham, Regional Manager for South of England informed the Committee that the proposed change to the footpath was because of the timing of the delivery, there were no proposed changes to the alignment on the north or south of the path. The reason for the delay was because of the continued operation of Hanson and Forterra on the site and it would not be safe to have public access there. The current footpath diversion would remain in place so could be safely used in the interim. The application was to extend the timeline to 31^st December 2030 to coincide with the current operation of the landfill.

The hinterland application relates to a non-hazardous landfill site permitted by the Environment Agency, which played a strategic role in providing a disposal point for predominantly construction and demolition for commercial and industrial waste. The adopted Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Core Strategy did not support the imposition of catchment areas on waste management facilities, including landfills. The Strategy acknowledged Oxfordshire imported substantial quantities of waste from other areas and the trend was expected to continue.

The S106 agreement from November 2008 imposed a restriction on the waste that could be disposed of the site known as the hinterland restriction. Hinterland restrictions such as this were used to provide strategic assets to safeguard void for their own arisings. There was no longer a need to safeguard the site for municipal waste. Now the hinterland restriction conversely functioned the barrier to the successful completion of the infilling and restoration of the site within the current consented operational timeframes, since limited to a much smaller area. The waste inputs needed to be maintained at 300 – 350,000 tonnes per annum to be able to complete the site by the current planning end date, 31^st December 2030. The planning consent was conditioned to restrict annual waste enforced to no more than 350000 tonnes per annum by road. The removal of the hinterland restriction would therefore not result in an increase of HGV movements. The removal of the hinterland would simply provide a wider area to maintain the levels.

Councillor Webber took the opportunity to invite the speaker to attend a Local Liaison Committee, as Chair of the Committee, to inform the local residents of the facts. Councillor Webber asked for confirmation that the 2030 target would be met and was reassured that if the hinterland restriction was removed, there would be more confidence that the 2030 deadline could be achieved. It was suggested that residents could attend the site for a visual explanation.

Councillor Constance formally proposed that the Officer recommendation permission be approved, taking particular note of the applicant’s confidence that the landfill would be completed by 2030. This was seconded by Councillor Gawrysiak.

The Chair called for a vote on the proposal.

The Committee Members all AGREED and voted unanimously for the proposal.

RESOLVED: that the application be APPROVED as per Officers recommendation that

i)               Oxfordshire County Council enter into a deed of variation to amend the existing Section 106 legal agreement with regards to removing the hinterland restriction and amending the date for the provision of a permissive path and

ii)             The Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change is authorised to enter into negotiations with the applicant and any other parties to the legal agreement with regard to making the variations set out in this report.