According to Letsrecycle.com East Lothian Councillors have rejected planning permission for a new Energy from Waste facility – despite the proposed facility being described as the ‘best practical environmental option’ by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and local Planning Officers recommending its approval.
The decision to turn down applications can be a risky for Councillors, particularly when their Planning Officers have already recommended approval. Council taxpayers can end up paying significant costs (upwards of £100,000) if the developer chooses to appeal the decision and can demonstrate at the public inquiry that they were put to unreasonable or unnecessary expense and delay.
While opposed residents living in the vicinity of such facilities may be perfectly happy for the Local Authority to shoulder such costs in an attempt to block development progress, Councillors have to remain aware of their responsibilities to local taxpayers across a much wider area. The position of a Councillor on a planning committee can be a difficult one as they have to balance a political ‘need’ to represent resident views with the requirement to ensure their decisions are reflective of planning law.
This can be complicated further when local Councillors are often members of political parties who may, at least at national level, be advocating such developments as part of their broader energy and waste strategies. For example the Conservatives recently published an Energy Policy Paper which highlights the importance of Energy from Waste as part of a decentralised energy generation system.
Balancing residents’ views with their legislated responsibilities as planners and then reconciling this with the national ‘party’ line can be quite the juggling act for local Councillors – and it doesn’t always work…
Source: Letsrecycle.com
Tags: community affairs, Energy from waste, Environment, Kestrel Communications, Planning, Recycling, Waste, waste heirarchy, waste management
Share this N. Dologhan, 2nd September 2009
