Council consultation on Market Place traffic restrictions

Local residents who use the Market Place might like to respond to the Review of Experimental Road Closure Access and Parking Restrictions at
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/transport_and_streets/transport_consultations/kingston_ancient_market_place.htm

On the 18 February this year motor traffic was removed from the southern end of the Market Place. Loading for businesses and Market traders was still allowed in the morning between 0600 and 1000 and in the afternoon between 1600 and 1800 Monday to Saturday. There is no access at all on Sunday. To offset the loss of parking for holders of Blue Disabled badges, new disabled bays were provided at either end of Bath Passage and by the Co-op Bank in High Street.
Approximately nine months have now passed, and the Council is seeking the views of all users of the Market Place to determine if you think the changes have improved or made matters worse. All of the views expressed before Oct 31 will then be reported to the Kingston Town Neighbourhood Committee who will decide, at their meeting on Wednesday 10 December, whether the scheme should be made permanent or removed.

Notes of South London Waste Plan Stakeholder Workshop - Rose Theatre 17 Oct 2008

The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton are working together to prepare a Joint Waste Development Plan Document, known as the South London Waste Plan. The South London Waste Plan is the councils' response to European, UK and regional policies and targets to manage waste more sustainably. The key role of the South London Waste Plan (SLWP) is to identify land which is suitable for the development of potential waste management facilities within the four boroughs. This development will reduce the quantity of waste going to landfill and the climate change impacts of this.

Development of the plan is at a very early stage and a number of public consultation exercises are under way. One such briefing / consultation / workshop was run the other evening at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. Some notes taken at the meeting follow below.




Agenda
• Welcome and introduction by Cllr Brian Mahoney
• Purpose and structure of Workshop - Susan Parham, CAG Consultants (the team of 3 facilitators)
• About the waste plan - Emma Smyth, South London Waste Plan Manager
• Question & answer session
• Breakout sessions / discussion groups
1. How much waste should the South London Waste Plan, plan to manage (i.e. 97% or 100% of the amount identified by the Mayor's office "apportioned" to the four boroughs working together)
2. Where will the facilities go?
3. Should the South London Waste Plan specify what waste development is suitable for each site identified?
• Next steps
Notes

40 - 50 people present.
Besides Cllr Brian Mahoney, Emma Smythe, also present were Cllr Richard Hudson and Rob Dixon - the services director for environmental matters.
Talked about the plan development.
Year long process.
Currently at Issues & Options stage.
Will lead to a draft plan in years time which will also be consulted upon.
Forms part of Local Development Plan (which succeeds the UDP).
The South London Waste Plan will:
• Identify sufficient and suitable sites for development of waste management facilities.
• Developers will then make applications for use with specific function and technologies to address all waste streams.
• These will be subject to normal planning controls, protections and consultation.
The plan will not:
• Identify specific technologies
• Change local refuse collection arrangement
The Mayor of London has set a target of being self sufficient for managing 85% of its own waste. As such each Borough or group has received an allocation of the total to deal with. This is called the "Apportionment".

Bizarrely despite the focus on waste, recycling etc, waste is forecast to increase from some 3/4 million tonnes today (managed by the 4 boroughs in 14 sites over some 11 hectares) to 1.3 million tonnes by 2021 (an estimated 17 hectares of facilities are required).

The figures strike one as being a bit odd. When challenged, the audience were told that the numbers were based in the main down to some assumptions in population expansion. This clearly does not take into account measure to counter the production of waste (www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/briefings/html/20010424152100.html) and other independent initiatives by specific retailers.

The base level of the 1.3 million tonnes which has to be taken account of is 97%. One of the questions for the breakout groups to consider was: How much waste should the South London Waste Plan, plan to manage (i.e. 97% or 100% of the amount identified by the Mayor's office "apportionment")?

Various questions, queries (and points on the part of Kingston Friends of the Earth for example) were raised. It was apparent that not everyone has read the detailed information available on line regarding the SLWP at:

http://southlondonwasteplan.limehouse.co.uk/portal

One particularly valid point was raised around the amount of retail waste and the lack of accountability by the manufacturer and the retailer in the supply chain to take responsibility for the waste they are generating.

The attendees were then broken out into three groups.

A question was raised about potential 'horse trading' between the Boroughs as to who would do what.
Rob Dixon commenting on the incineration as one option, mentioned that the most advanced facilities would only be able to cope with some 10% of the projected 1.3 million tonnes.
UK currently spends £60 - £80 per tonne on dealing with waste, compared to £100 - £120 on the continent. Dealing with more waste will cost more.
The consensus was that the SLWP should attempt to deal with 100% of the apportionment.

As to where facilities should be located, comment was made that consideration should be given to collection and transportation as well as recycling.
Note the region differs from some in that it already has a landfill site.
Geography and location matters were discussed but in general most contributors felt that they would have benefited from more knowledge as to the type of facilities and their effectiveness in dealing with various types of waste to add more relevance / context.

Some key points raised included: "Environmental Justice" - ensuring that any developments do not adversely impact areas of social deprivation. Rathermore, any new facilities should be assessed on a principle of their positive impact against a set of pre-determined criteria.

It was concluded that it was not the type of technology / facility at a specific location which matters but more so the the impact of the facility (both positive and negative).

Rob Dixon pointed out that it would be nigh on impossible to control inter-regional waste processing e.g. SLWP facilities taking waste from other regions and processing it for money, except by licence or controls implemented as part of the overall planning policies.

In justifying the evenings activity, however effectively managed, one of the stakeholders said "In 2012 when we are asked why you chose one particular course of action over another, they can point to consultation exercises such as this one tonight as evidence of what people thought."

In terms of next stages, the draft will be put out for consultation around October 2009. The final plan will follow in February 2010 before going on for review by the Secretary of State.

As a final matter and a key concern echoed throughout the evening, a member of the audience again asked what was being done to try and reduce the total amount of waste under consideration with particular reference to retail and supermarket waste.

This was supported by a number of other comments. A response was given that the points would be noted and taken into account and that various other initiatives were focused on such matters. However, It was then pointed out that there seemed to be a glaring majority of people who thought the SLWP should explicitly cover such matters with a number of key objectives to reduce the 1.3 million tonnes included in the plan. A show of hands showed that this was the majority view of the audience. It will be interesting to see whether the final report reflects such intentions.

A couple of local initiatives for those who worry about the environment

Transition Town Kingston
The newly-formed Transition Town Kingston (TTK) “exists to mobilise and facilitate community action in Kingston to respond effectively and positively to climate change and peak oil”. It is part of a national movement (“Archers” fans will be aware that Ambridge is a Transition Town) – find out more at http://www.transitiontowns.org/. TTK monthly meetings, in C-Scaipe, Kingston University Penrhyn Road campus, are free of charge, open to all, and refreshments are provided. Coming up are "Transition Films Night" on Wednesday 12th November, 7pm for 7.30, and "Transition Carnival: Celebrating our way to resilience" with TTK's first guest speaker, Dr. David Fleming, on Thursday 4th December, 7pm for 7.30.
If you want to keep in touch with TTK activities you can subscribe to the TTKingston Yahoo group. There are instructions on how to join a group at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/manage/manage-06.html but if you have any problems, you can email TTKingstonSteering@yahoogroups.com and a member of the steering group will help.

Kingston Council's Action for Sustainable Kingston (ASK) newsletter can be read at http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/environment/community_environmental_action/eco_footprint/ask.htm or hard copy is in various public places - e g, libraries, the Visitors Centre in the Market Place, Guildhall.

South London Waste Plan Issues and Options Consultation - now live!

CARA members and other local residents might want to read and respond to this or to go along to the workshop on 16th October.

Please find below a link to the online Issues and Options consultation for the South London Waste Plan, which is being prepared jointly by the boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton. If you are already registered with the Limehouse online consultation system, you can use your existing logon and password. If you have not used this system before, please register by following the step-by-step instructions via the below link. Please note that when submitting comments, these will be shared by the four boroughs for all consultations relating to the development of the South London Waste Plan.
http://southlondonwasteplan.limehouse.co.uk

Get involved now before it becomes policy

This is the first stage of consultation on the Waste Plan and is your opportunity to help inform the development of the Plan. If you follow the above link, you will find two online questionnaires:
· A short Issues and Options questionnaire which seeks your opinion on the key issues in developing the Waste Plan
· A full Issues and Options questionnaire which contains more technical information and seeks your views on a wider range of issues.

Public workshops
Each borough will host a public workshop during the consultation period. This is your opportunity to find out more about the South London Waste Plan and discuss the key issues. Please see the details below and contact the Project Manager should you wish to register.

Kingston 16th October, 7pm at the Rose Theatre
A light buffet will be provided.


Emma Smyth
Waste Planning Project Manager
South London Waste Plan
020 8547 5375

Hotel development appeal update

Confirmation at yesterday's Town Centre Management Group meeting that the inspector's report on the developers' appeal is with the Secretary of State, and a decision is expected at the end of November.