BALI No Landfill At Bexhill

BALI AGM Postponed

2011-06-13T12:40:00.000+01:00

Please note that the BALI AGM scheduled for the 4th July 2011 has been postponed.
A revised date will be posted when the new date for the AGM is arranged.

ADVANCE NOTICE of the BALI AGM

2011-03-21T19:19:00.005Z

The Date for the AGM has been set for Monday, 4th July – 7pm at Highwoods Golf Club. All members will receive the agenda and any other relevant paperwork at least 21 days before this date under item 7.2 of the Constitution.

The venue can accommodate approx 100 people and you will be asked to confirm your intention to attend, as larger numbers than this will result in the necessity to seek a venue with a greater capacity.

WANTED:- BALI need a Social Secretary or a team

2011-03-21T19:19:00.002Z

With the successful launch of our membership scheme (currently in excess of 250 members), we need someone to organise social events during the year. If you are willing to undertake this role then please contact Colin Bennett via email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk or our Mobile No.07814 895874

BALI Membership Drive Now On!

2011-01-04T18:53:00.000Z

Article By Nigel Jarrett
First published in the Bexhill Observer 31st December 2010

MP Signs up as BALI's number one member
A membership drive launched by BALI signed up its first recruit on Friday - local MP and leading supporter Greg Barker.
BALI began as a small action group in 2002 when Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road was earmarked by East Sussex County Council as a potential site for the land disposal of waste. Mr Barker, now Minister for Climate Change, was among those who helped found it.
With widespread support, the group has punched above its weight in the fight to prevent Bexhill ending up with its third landfill in 60 years, but with the issue still unresolved, now wants to reorganise as a membership association to give itself more clout.
Nick hollington, BALI chairman for the past five years, said: "Greg has been our foremost supporter and has always done everything we have asked of him, and more.
"He has chaired our public meetings, received us at the House of Commons and spoke at our meeting of key stakeholders in October, giving early details of new government policy.
"on the one hand this will further restrict the use of landfill by emphasising greater recycling and use of alternative waste management technologies, and on the other give local citizens more control over how they shape their area."
Mr Hollington said that having Mr Barker as member number one was a huge boost to BALI's membership campaign, launched at last month's meeting of the Bexhill Town Forum.
He added:"We have an initial target of 1,000 members.
"In this way we can prove to East Sussex County Council, by the strength of our membership, that the people of Bexhill and Rother are dead set against its monstrous proposal."
Anyone living in Bexhill or Rother can jpin BALI, subscription £5 per adult, £3 for students, £10 for companies or affiliated groups.Full details are available on BALI's website: www.nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk.

BALLI Membership now Launched!

2010-12-13T19:05:00.000Z

As promised, the BALI membership scheme is now launched! For only £5 (£3 for students) or £10 for companies or affiliated groups, sign up to be a member of BALI and help fight the landfill proposal.
Please see our website to download the application form: www.nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk.

Meeting of Key Stakeholders Report

2010-11-21T20:29:00.001Z

An informal report by Nick Hollington
29th October 2010

On Friday 29th October there gathered, in the august surroundings of the Council Chamber in Bexhill Town Hall, representatives of Bexhill and Rother residents, community groups and amenities, together with local councillors, to discuss with East Sussex County Council (ESCC)their plans for the future management of waste and how these might affect Bexhill. As you all know, Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road is being considered as a landfill site for the disposal of waste.

All the key ESCC decision-makers were present including Cllr. Matthew Lock, Lead Cabinet Member, Transport and Environment, Rupert Clubb, Director of Transport and Environment and Tony Cook, Head of Planning.

We were also pleased to welcome our MP, Greg Barker, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change who took time out of his busy Westminster schedule to address the meeting on the government’s latest waste and planning policies.

We had also invited the owners of the Ashdown site, Ibstock Brick Ltd, and they had agreed to attend, but sadly they pulled out at the last minute.

BALI had been preparing for this meeting, which we nicknamed ‘MEEKS,’ for some time. In May I had noticed a statement by Matthew Lock that he wanted the Council to have more ‘dialogue’ with communities affected by their waste plan.

While BALI has had a continuing dialogue with ESCC Officers since last October, when the “Preferred Strategy” was published, I wanted our own residents to have that same opportunity as we have had to put their views ‘over the table’ to the Council and to be able to engage with them.

We had had, of course, our highly successful Public Meeting last November, when over 350 people crammed into Bexhill High School (and many more were turned away) to protest about the Council’s plan but, while this had shown ESCC how strongly the public felt (“Unity Against Landfill” was the Bexhill Observer’s next day headline) about the proposals for Ashdown, there wasn’t really any decent opportunity for stakeholders to seriously engage in any detail with the Council or for the Council to respond.

So I took Cllr Lock at his word and made detailed proposals for this meeting of stakeholders, and he not only accepted them but actually agreed for ESCC to help organize and sponsor the meeting. We then got to work on hiring the venue and organizing the event.

Invitations were sent out to local societies, resident groups, amenities and businesses, especially those likely to be most affected by the plan such as Highwoods Preservation Society, the Highwoods Golf Club and Chestnut Meadow Caravan Park. I am pleased to say that every local organization we approached sent a representative.!

These included Bexhill and Little Common Chambers of Commerce, Bexhill Museum, Bexhill and Rother Environmental Groups, The Bexhill Alliance .... and many more. The Council for the Protection of Rural England also sent a representative; in fact the Director of its Sussex Branch, Stuart Meier, came personally.

The response from our local Council was, I’m pleased to say, also very good. Our Council Leader, Carl Maynard took part as did most of our Bexhill East Sussex County Councillors and also 10 of our Rother District Councillors, including 5 Cabinet members! Furthermore we were pleased to welcome the Chief Executive Officer of Rother District Council, Derek Stevens, the Director of Services and the Head of Planning.

There were also representatives of other Councils present such as Hastings, Wealden and Ninfield Parish Council as these areas would be affected by the impact of heavy waste traffic in their neighbourhoods, if the Ashdown landfill were to go ahead, especially now that the Link Road is unlikely to be constructed in the foreseeable future.

The meeting was ably chaired by Hamish Munro, Chairman of the East Sussex Economic Partnership with Cllr Lock and myself acting as ‘lead facilitators’ regarding the group discussions and the summing up of the meeting.

The first part of the meeting consisted of presentations using power-point slides, firstly by Tony Cook, Head of ESCC Planning regarding the problems of managing the County’s waste given that nearly all landfill sites in the County are now full, then by BALI on why we feel (as do the residents of Bexhill and Rother and Rother District Council itself) that Ashdown Brickworks is a totally unsuitable site for landfill owing to its proximity to local housing and amenities and the lack of any suitable access.

There was then a searching question and answer session before Greg Barker gave the final presentation on emerging new government policy, which, of course, will be binding on ESCC regarding its decisions. He explained that there is currently a ‘waste review’ and new policy will be announced next spring.

The Coalition will be the “greenest government ever” and act to move waste management further away from the use of landfill towards greater recycling, particularly of commercial and construction waste, and the use of new technologies such as incineration and anaerobic digestion for the recovery of heat and energy from waste.

Also, under its recent National Infrastructure plan, which will be confirmed by its shortly forthcoming Decentralization and Localism Bill, any new waste facilities would need to be decided by local authorities in full consultation with the communities that would be affected by them.

After a short break, the participants then divided into four groups to discuss the many issues involved such as transport, the effects on the environment, amenities etc. also to give their own views on how the County’s waste should be managed. This gave everyone a chance to speak and the notes for each group discussion were taken and will later be published.

I and CllrESCC likewise engaged politely and seriously.

I just hope East Sussex Council were really listening! So many strong cohesive arguments were made during the meeting against the proposed landfill at Ashdown that I asked in my summing up simply ‘How many reasons against the landfill does there have to be before ESCC rejects the idea as a non-starter?’ I also asked how many communities had to be affected by the plan and how long it would take before they finally made the right decision to give up on a plan which has so little support behind it and so little logic and common sense to recommend it. Would you believe East Sussex have been considering a landfill at Ashdown since 1988? Isn’t this in itself a waste of public money and shouldn’t it stop now?

I would like to thank all those who helped plan and arrange this meeting - particularly Diane Cheeseman, Iva Barnes and Colin Bennett of BALI and Ian Blake and Amanda Parks of ESCC.

2010-10-25T20:19:00.001+01:00

BALI Dinner Dance

Friday 26th November 2010

It is with regret that the Dinner Dance on 26th November has been cancelled, so apologies to those who were planning to attend.

More campaign updates will be available soon, so please check back for details.

Bexhill Achievers Recognition for BALI

2010-09-20T07:41:00.001+01:00

BALI was nominated for the Environment Award at the Bexhill Achievers Ceremony on Friday 17th September.

BALI members were delighted to be presented with the Highly Commended Award.
This was accepted by Nick Hollington on behalf of the group who felt it was a reward for 8 years of effort and dedication by the group in campaigning against the proposed landfill at Ashdown.

BALI were presented with a framed certificate which will be on display for the first time at the Town Forum on Tuesday 21st September.

Fight Continues Over Landfill

2010-09-17T09:33:00.000+01:00

Article by Ben Higgins, published Bexhill Observer 17/9/10

Protesters have amassed a body of new evidence supporting their belief that landfill is not an option in Bexhill.
Members of BALI are set to present their findings to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) ahead of the authority's next newsletter on the matter at the end of the month.

Amid news that ESCC is now exploring alternatives to land disposal, the town's MP has warned residents that landfill 'remains a real threat', calling for Bexhill to unite behind a common cause.

Greg Barker said: 'We still need to continue to raise money to fight a professional campaign and ensure this threat is defeated by the town.
'It's clear the wider expert opinions are moving away from landfill because of the huge costs and environmental impact landfill has.
'But it's still a very real problem and there's absolutely no room for complacency in our campaign.
'We have always been at our best when we have a common cause uniting different parties and age groups.'
Fresh with a new constitution and membership scheme, BALI have prepared a submission summarising findings at Ashdown Brickworks, Turkey Road, ESCC's preferred choice for a new waste disposal site.
The findings include:

the discovery of dinosaur remains at Ashdown Brickworks
an ongoing application to turn the brickworks into a Site of Special Scientific Interest
the expansion of Bexhill cemetery, meaning its borders will neighbour the brickworks
the new Bexhill High School site on Gunters Lane
the delay and possible cancellation of the Bexhill Hastings Link Road

ESCC is still considering the response to the recent consultation on the landfill proposals, and say they will soon publish an analysis of residents' concerns, hinting at the prospect of further consultation.

A recent edition of Your County magazine, published by ESCC, says they are: 'looking at other alternatives which might mean land disposal is not needed.'

When asked to explain this, a spokesman commented: 'There are a range of ways in which we can reduce the need for landfill, including minimising the amount of waste produced in the first place, recycling, composting and converting to energy.

'We are already employing these techniques for household waste and are in discussion with partners to consider the feasibility of all or some of these approaches for commercial, industrial, construction and demolition waste.'

Nearby West Sussex County Council recently suspended work on its waste strategy in the light of a policy review by the coalition government.

Asked why ESCC is pressing ahead, the spokesman said no decisions would be made before government's plans were clear.

'We must plan for the waste that continues to be produced in the county, especially given that existing disposal facilities have a finite life', he said. 'However, we are conscious that government is reviewing its waste policies and we will not therefore make any plans in advance of this and any other reviews.'

Nick Hollington, chair of BALI, urged residents to join the groups' new membership scheme, saying: 'I have always wanted to involve local people in the association.

'We want everyone to join. Going to East Sussex to continue this fight, we need to say we have at least 1,000 members. Anybody can join and we hope councillors will join too. It gives us more weight.'

BALI's next move is a meeting of key stakeholders on October 29. Though not a public meeting, Nick invited community groups to send a representative along. Contact BALI on 01424 843046 or 01424 221872 for information about the meeting, or membership.

Leader of Rother District Council Carl Maynard has previously confirmed RDC 'consistently and fundamentally opposes' landfill at Ashdown Brickworks, but could not be reached in time for comment yesterday (Thursday).

See the Bexhill Observer website.

A Taste of BALI at Freezeland Farm

2010-09-10T13:54:00.002+01:00

BALI was very fortunate to be offered the facilities of Freezeland Farm by Bill and Margaret van Draat last Saturday 4th September 2010 for an informal dinner. This wonderful setting was enhanced by the weather so guests were able to enjoy pre-dinner drinks in the courtyard before entering the barn where tables had been set out and decorated with small lights and candles.

Although our MP Greg Barker was unable to stay, he gave a very pertinent address about the history of BALI and that the cross party committee was still carrying on the fight to ensure the landfill threat at Ashdown was defeated. One of the reasons for the evening, apart from obviously publicising BALI, was the very necessary raising of much needed funds.

We had 58 people sit down for a 3 course meal with wine, with the main course based on an Indonesian/Bali theme. During coffee, we were lucky to have as speaker ex Mayor Stuart Earl, long a supporter of the Landfill fight and on this occasion he not only emphasised this but also gave us stories from his time running Earls bakery.

The whole evening was a huge success with approximately £1500 raised. We were very fortunate that we had kind people who donated items for the auction and raffle which raised a considerable amount of money. However, the most important thanks must go to Bill & Margaret whose generosity and spirit ensured that we had an incredibly successful evening in so many different ways.

Bexhill is indeed very lucky in having two such wonderful people who freely offer their home facilities and time for events such as this.

2010-08-06T13:00:00.000+01:00

BALI is not relaxing this summer as there are still so many things that are going on in our fight to persuade East Sussex that the Ashdown Brickworks site is a dreadful and potentially devastating site to put yet another landfill in Bexhill.

BALI is most definitely not a political organization and its committee and supporters are made up of people from all cross -sections of society and political persuasions.

New BALI Membership Scheme for Rother
We are launching a membership scheme in September which will reach out to not only Bexhill residents but also anyone in the Rother area who feels this is a wrong move on the part of East Sussex.. Further information will be available nearer the time or if you wish to register an interest now, you can do it through the website www.nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk or contact Iva on 01424 221872.

Fundraising: Donations Welcome Please!
In order to ensure we have the funds to continue the campaign, our Fund Raising group has been tramping the highways and byways of Bexhill delivering leaflets to explain why we need extra funding to step up our campaign. Mike Rosner, in charge of the BALI 100 Club, is hoping that yet more money can be raised in this way to ensure BALI has sufficient finance to afford essential legal advice and representation.. He can be contacted on 845688 and would be delighted to hear from you.

BALI Events Summer and Autumn 2010
While that is an ongoing thread, we are now recommencing our programme of social events with the dual purpose of not only adding to our funds, but also uniting our supporters and ensuring that everyone is aware of what BALI is doing and why.

The first event is at Freezeland Farm, Freezeland Lane on Saturday September 4th 7 pm for 7.30 by very kind permission of Bill and Margaret van Draat. We are calling it BALI FOR A TASTE OF BALI as the evening will have an Indonesian flavour.
Tickets are £20 per person which includes a 3 course meal with wine and music. These can be obtained from Iva 221872. PLEASE SUPPORT US!

The second Event is a Dinner Dance on Friday November 26th at Highwoods Golf Club by kind permission of the Chairman and board.. Please put this date in your diaries and further information will follow nearer the time.

In between, at the end of October, BALI and East Sussex County Council are organizing a Meeting of Key Stakeholders which will take place in the Rother District Council Chamber whose aim is to get all sides together for an ‘informed dialogue’, putting points and counter points.

This is a difficult campaign which BALI is in for the duration and which, if the town and district remain united, we believe we can win.. There already exist wonderful plans to regenerate the clay pits after excavation, but we first have to win the fight to stop landfill filling them with waste. That will take a lot of work and dedication over time which is why we need help from all Bexhill and the surrounding area.

It is no good listening to those who say it will never happen. We have to continue the campaign until such times as Ashdown is officially taken out of the Waste Strategy

Be in no doubt that yet another landfill – Bexhills’ 4th – will impact on the whole town and district..

BALI Events for Your Diary

2010-07-24T13:20:00.003+01:00

Advance notice of two BALI events coming up this year...

Saturday 4th September at 7pm for 7.30pm:

Join BALI for a taste of BALI

Venue: Freezeland Farm, Bexhill by kind permission of Margaret and Bill van Drat.

There will be a three course meal with an 'Indonesian' flavour, music and a chance to enjoy, before the meal, the lovely garden.

For tickets, please Telephone Iva on 01424 221872 or Barbara 01424 212796.

Friday 26th November 2010:

Dinner Dance at Highwoods Golf Club:

John Hollands and the Golf Club Committee have kindly given permission for the use of Highwoods Golf Club and the event will be co-ordinated by Councillor Joanne Gadd. More details to follow...

Please keep your diaries free!

Competition finalist to give his prizes to BALI, Bexhill Groups & the environment

2010-07-23T09:31:00.002+01:00

Bexhill resident Michael Bernard is one of just 15 finalists selected by Nectar judges from 6000 entries to Nectar's Savvy Shopper Competition.

Michael's shopping tip: "I pay for all my shopping with my WWF (World Wildlife Fund) charity Visa card. It costs me nothing but WWF get 0.40p for every £100 I spend. Helping the environment wherever possible is the savviest thing we can do – for me, you, our children and every living thing on the planet."

The great news for Bexhill, BALI and Highwoods Preservation Society in particular, is that Michael has said: "The competition winner gets £500 and a short Eurostar holiday in Paris. But if I win I will donate £500 to WWF and at least £400 (equivalent to the value of the holiday) to four Bexhill-on-Sea environmental and animal causes. I will give £100 to Barby Keel, to support the brilliant work they do to relieve the suffering of animals, £100 to BALI to help the fight against landfill at Ashdown Brickworks, which would be a disaster for Bexhill, £100 to Highwoods Preservation Society to support this wonderful local beauty spot and wildlife haven, and £100 to the fledgling Bexhill Environmental Group, which meets for the very first time on 7.00 p.m. on 4th August in the Community Meeting Room, Old Bank Chambers."

Michael says, "I don't want to gain anything at all in a personal way from winning the competition, I just want to use this competition to help Bexhill and the environment. Please go online to https://savvy.nectar.com/ and vote for me."

So, thank you to Michael and please go online and vote for Michael today!

LGA: Eight Years Left of Landfill

2010-07-13T09:13:00.000+01:00

The Local Government Association reports "Britain will run out of landfill space in less than eight years' time - unless recycling rates are boosted and the amount of rubbish dumped in the ground is reduced, council leaders have warned.

The warning comes as figures reveal that Britain still dumps more household waste into the ground than any other European Union (EU) country."

Read the full article on the LGA website.

Come and Meet BALI at Green Day 3rd July 2010

2010-06-30T12:10:00.000+01:00

The Friends of Egerton Park will be holding this year's Green Day event on Saturday 3rd July in Egerton Park, Bexhill between 11am and 3pm.
The event will include stalls, refreshments and a children's activity zone run by the Rother Children's Centre, plus of course, BALI will be there to answer your questions. Please come along and support the event and say hello!

Register Now to Become a Member of BALI! Please Show Your Support

2010-06-28T08:49:00.001+01:00

We have decided to reorganize BALI as a broad-based membership association, open to all Bexhill residents. For a nominal subscription you will receive a quarterly newsletter and the right to vote on important matters at the AGM.

BALI’s aim is simply to stop the landfill. We started our campaign in 2002 with a small group of residents. Through widespread public support, we have become a force with which to be reckoned.

To register for membership, please:
email BALI info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk, stating your name, address, contact phone no. and email address, or if you would prefer, download and complete the form, and send it to BALI, PO Box 194, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex TN 40 9BD.

Please indicate if you would also be willing to play a more active part in our campaign, for example, serving on committees, researching, organizing or assisting canvassing or fundraising events.
We will contact you with full details of our membership scheme and a full application form.
Thank you for your support.

Government Announces a Review of Waste policy

2010-06-16T08:53:00.000+01:00

The Government is to carry out a full review of waste policy in England, looking at the most effective ways of reducing waste, maximising the money to be made from waste and recycling, and how waste policies affect local communities and individual households.

Terms of reference for the review will be published in the next few weeks. To read more, please visit the defra website or check back for updates.

BALI Westminster No-Landfill Demo 11th June 2010

2010-06-12T19:31:00.003+01:00

BALI demonstrated at Westminster sending a very firm message that landfill is not for Bexhill!

It was a really good day with even the weather behaving itself so BALI members were all able to 'strip' off to show the wonderful T Shirts organised by Colin Bennett - which, with small donations over the actual price, has actually made money for BALI!

We gathered on Parliament Square to be photographed by both Meridian TV and others including some very interested passers by, and with the wonderful backdrop of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

BALI Chairman, Nick Hollington was interviewed by Meridian, and we were then joined by Greg Barker, our very supportive MP, who wasn't averse to holding a placard saying 'Don't dump on Bexhill'.

Greg was also interviewed by Meridian, but sadly we were only given about a 10 second slot on Saturday evening!

After all the excitement, BALI took a tour of the Houses of Parliament, which was fantastic - so much history and so much to see, with both the Lords and Commons chambers seeming very much smaller than they appear on TV - An incredible experience.

Thanks to all who came and really helped to get over the message - and as the youngest present, Alexandra said it was the best school trip ever!

Read the article in the Bexhill Observer 17th June 2010 Anti-Landfill protest gets the Commons touch

BALI Westminster Trip This Friday!

2010-06-08T20:12:00.000+01:00

BALI members will be making a trip to Westminster this Friday 11th June to protest about the proposal for a landfill site at Ashdown Brickworks. Check back soon to find out what happened!

Read the latest articles about BALI on the Bexhill Observer Website:

Westminster beckons for landfill protestors (3rd June 2010)

BALI visit to Laybrook and Thakeham Village Action

2010-06-01T19:48:00.003+01:00

Recently we received some good news, though not about Ashdown Brickworks.

Our colleagues at Thakeham Village Action in West Sussex, fighting a proposed Cory/Ibstock landfill at Laybrook Brickworks had, against all the odds, achieved a famous victory. The planning application to landfill Laybrook had been withdrawn!

This news goes to show that a fight against an unsuitable landfill site is never over till it's over. Unlike Ashdown, Laybrook was already in the West Sussex waste plan and Cory/Ibstock had already put in a planning application. We felt that their cause was nearly a 'goner', but they just kept on fighting – and they won.

We wondered if there were lessons we (BALI) could learn from their successful campaign and asked if we might go down to see them. They were keen to meet us also, having followed closely our campaign. So we (Raymond Walley, Colin Bennett and myself) arranged to meet them in the local village pub, The White Lion, which had become a sort of HQ for their campaign.

First we went to see the Laybrook quarry site which had similarities to Ashdown although it was one big hole rather than two (it is not always understood there are two pits at Ashdown). In many ways, and this was encouraging, we felt Ashdown was far less suitable for landfill than Laybrook. Access to the Laybrook quarry is much better, along good roads. Also there are hardly any houses or amenities within 1 ½ miles of the quarry. Compare Ashdown, sandwiched between the Highwoods SSSI and Bexhill Cemetery, with the Golf Club over the road and the new Bexhill High School and app.4000 houses within a mile of the site!

After visiting the Laybrook site we returned to the White Lion to eat, drink and chat with Jean Beckett and the TVA team in a convivial atmosphere, sharing so many experiences, closely bonded by our common struggle.

"So how did you do it?" we asked. Of course there was no magic formula, no silver bullet they could hand us to defeat the Ashdown landfill proposal at a stroke. So much had been down to their sheer hard work, continually campaigning, lobbying, researching, fundraising etc. over many years.

People seldom realize how groups like TVA and BALI give up so much of their lives over such a long period (TVA: 10 years, BALI 8 ) to fight their causes. TVA just kept on even when their cause looked hopeless. "Never give up!" was above all the message.

But they did give us lots of practical 'tips' to take back to our committee. One was not only to lobby ‘the political establishment’ (e.g. ESCC, Rother District Council) but also quasi-governmental organizations such as the Environment Agency, the Highways authority, English Nature and the Council for Protection for Rural England (CPRE). Also to simply keep giving hard information out (e.g. to Councillors) on the difficulties of operating the proposed landfill, or its harmful effects, even if, as was often the case, they received no reply.

TVA had also organized some excellent events to canvass local support, for instance a Saturday afternoon ‘family march’ around the local area with children, dogs, bands playing etc. which brought out about a thousand people and was heavily publicized in the local paper. The paper also agreed to let them have a regular slot, reporting on their activities and explaining why not only this landfill, but waste landfill in general, was a bad idea and unnecessary in this day and age when so much more waste can be recycled and there are so many new technologies available for disposing of the remainder, many of which can also produce heat and energy resources.

We felt we learnt a lot and came back to Bexhill buzzing with ideas for our BALI Campaign. Above all we felt encouraged by TVA’s final victory and their willingness to give our campaign every support. Many thanks to our friends at Thakeham: you are an example and an inspiration to us!

Landfill protesters join in Highwoods group's 30th birthday

2010-05-27T20:13:00.001+01:00

BALI supported the Highwoods Preservation Society 30th Birthday celebrations at highwoods on Saturday 22nd May 2010.
The Highwoods is a beautiful area of traditional coppiced woodland designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is managed by the Highwoods Preservation Society volunteers under an agreement with Rother District Council. This area is now under threat because of the Landfill proposal for the Ashdown brickworks site, which is next to the Highwoods.
For more information about Highwoods or to join the Highwoods Preservation Society, please see the Highwoods Preservation Society website.
Read about BALI's team at the birthday celebrations on the Bexhill Observer website.

House of Commons Visit Friday 11th June 2010

2010-05-21T13:11:00.000+01:00

Book Your Place Now: Only A Few Places Left!

BALI is organising a visit to the House of Commons. We will receive a tour of the House of Commons and are planning a demonstration in Parliament Square which involve media and TV and will provide a wonderful opportunity to ensure that our total opposition to landfill at Ashdown not only gets into the wider news but reaches more people in East Sussex and most especially East Sussex County Council.

There are places for 100 people on two coaches and these will be allocated on a first come first served basis. We will hold a reserve list so that if there are last-minute drop outs we will contact those who were not initially allocated a place. However if, on the day, you find yourself unable to come, we will be unable to return your money as we need to cover coach costs.

There will be 2 pick up points - Town Hall, Bexhill at 10am and The Wheatsheaf, Little Common at 10.10am to arrive in Central London for a lunchtime drop off in Trafalgar Square. Please make your own arrangments for lunch. The coaches will pick us up again around 2.15pm and the demonstration will take place at 2.45pm. We then need to be in the queue at the House by 3.30pm for our timed visits. We would hope to depart London for home at 6.15pm. Please note: All times are subject to change.

How to Book Your Place

The cost is £12.50 per person. Cheques should be made payable to 'BALI' with 'London Visit' written on the back. If you feel able to donate a little more to the fund we will be very grateful! Please enclose SAE for receipt and also if we need to return your cheque in the event of overbooking.

Please ensure we receive your:
- Name, Address, Telephone Number and email address.
Please also indicate:

which pick up point you would like: Town Hall, Bexhill or The Wheatsheaf, Little Common
If we may contact you by email with details of further arrangements

Please return your contact details, cheque and SAE as soon as possible to Judy Murray, 17 The Ridings, Bexhill TN39 5HU. For more details please telephone Judy on 07814 895874 or email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk.

Ashdown Brickworks Site: Jurassic Park?

2010-03-31T21:12:00.001+01:00

Bexhill is famous for its Dinosaur remains, most of which are housed in the Bexhill Museum which has recently announced that it is planning a new special "Dinosaur Gallery" to display its large and important collection of these treasures to the public.

The main source of these remains, apart from the beach; is not well-known: it is the Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road, which is currently proposed for a waste landfill.

Geologists and archaeologists have been making ‘digs’ or fossil hunting in the Ashdown Quarries for over 30 years; employees at the site also often spot dinosaur bones as they go about their tasks. What is found is invariably handed over to Bexhill Museum, though sometimes casts are first made by the collectors

The quarry pits, of which there are two, are part of the Wadhurst Clay Formation, interlaced with the Tunbridge Wells Sands, which date from the Lower Cretaceous period when Ashdown was part of a prehistoric lagoon, about 135 million years ago. Such geological strata are distinguished for their remains of dinosaurs and reptiles.

Bones of many different reptiles and types of dinosaur have been found at Ashdown, mostly in 3 ‘beds’ around the Northiam Sandstone in the Pevensey Pit. Museum employees and volunteers have accompanied members of Hastings and Wealden Geological groups on many ‘digs’ at the site, but these have, until now, been shrouded in secrecy, the site-owners, Ibstock Brick, requiring the participants not to reveal the source of their discoveries.

BALI, the group opposing the landfill at Ashdown Brickwork, has known about these finds for many years but have co-operated in keeping their source secret. However, they have now been publicly revealed by a lengthy, recent (February 2010) article in Wealden News, the newsletter of Wealden Geology, entitled “Vertebrae found from Ashdown Brickworks, Bexhill” (download is a pdf file). The article contains detailed information and beautiful illustrations of many of the prehistoric finds made at Ashdown.

The article states that over the past 20 years “Ashdown Brickworks has yielded an impressive array of vertebrae material” and that Bexhill Museum’s collection (from Ashdown) is an “important collection” containing a number of “new species”.

The lowest bed (Turtle Bed) has yielded mainly the remains of turtles and crocodiles. The next bed ( Conglomerate Bed ) has mainly produced not only the vertebrae of prehistoric fishes, salamanders, aigialosaurs and again turtles and crocodiles, but also dinosaurs such as Iguanodon, Polacanthus and Hylaeosarous.The first teeth ever to be found in the UK of the armoured dinosaur Polecanthus were also discovered in this bed. The highest bed (Polacanthus bed) has produced substantial remains of a single large Polacanthus and an Iguanodon.

The full list of species from the recent finds is contained in the Wealden News article. But there have been previous finds, particularly in 1999 and 2000, not only of an Iguanodon but also Baryonyx, Ornithodesmus, a Megalosaur and a Dromaeosaur.

So far only a small section of the Ashdown site has been investigated and there are strong grounds to believe there are many more important finds to be made at the site. It is understood that attempts have been made for the site to be “set aside” as nationally important and these may be renewed in the light of recent discoveries. Recently a working quarry in Bicester (Oxfordshire) was granted SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status as a result of its distinctive dinosaur tracks and foot prints. Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England said at the time: “Geological sites of this quality are few and far between and we are delighted to give this important window on our past the protection it deserves”.

Whether Ashdown could be given SSSI status for similar reasons is for now purely speculative. The adjacent Highwoods already are an SSSI and perhaps its designation might be extended to include the Ashdown site which contains ancient woodland and similar flora and fauna to the Highwoods. BALI has already proposed to the RDC Local Development Framework that the whole Ashdown/Highwoods area including the surrounding woodland and picturesque meadows and farmland be made into a West Bexhill Countryside Park analogous to the Pebsham Countryside Park being formed in East Bexhill. They wait to hear the Council’s response in their Core Strategy due later this year. Most Bexhill residents also feel strongly that the Ashdown site should not be submerged in waste but alternatively used for research and community educational and leisure pursuits.

This is why BALI, faced with the threat of an imminent planning application for landfill by Ibstock and Cory, has decided that the archaeological importance of the Ashdown site should be urgently made known to the wider public and, of course, East Sussex County Council. Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI, states: “We have kept quiet for many years about the dinosaur remains for fear of upsetting the archaeological work taking place in a situation where the landfill was not yet confirmed in the new ESCC Waste and Minerals Core Strategy and there was no planning application on the horizon. That situation has now entirely changed with Ibstock proposing to start a planning application later this year. It is time now that the archaeological and geological value of the Ashdown Brickworks was brought firmly out into the open – before it is too late - to add to the many reasons why the site should not be used for waste landfill.”

He continues: “‘Not upsetting the fossil-hunters’ is an argument that only goes so far. If the site is used for landfill then access to the site is likely to be disrupted or prohibited and important dinosaur remains covered with waste for all time. The Wealden News article reveals that access to the important Polacanthus bed has already been lost following the construction of an internal roadway. With the arrival of a landfill, how much more of Bexhill’s rich ‘dinosaur heritage’ will be forever lost? We feel that the local archaeological/geological societies and Bexhill Museum should now speak out and take action to protect this rich source of dinosaur remains not only in their own interests and of the people of Bexhill, but of the nation as a whole, so important are these discoveries.”

Nick Hollington, BALI 19.03.2010

Bexhill Cemetery Will Expand Despite Threat of Landfill

2010-03-31T21:08:00.001+01:00

On 18th March 2010, Rother District Council Planning Committee decided to grant a new planning application (RR/2010/1783R) to extend Bexhill Cemetery in St Mary’s Lane almost to the border of the Ashdown Brickworks.

Unless ESCC withdraws its renewed proposal to allocate Ashdown for waste landfill and site-owners Ibstock decline to proceed with their landfill planning application, mourners visiting their loved ones or attending their burial will be faced with all the horrors of a rotting dump within perhaps as little as 50 yards.

The approved application represents a renewal of the permission of change of use granted under a previous application (RR/2006/3294/3R) whereby RDC would compulsorily purchase a substantial (2.92 hectares) field of agricultural land to the west of the current cemetery. It is understood that proceedings in this respect are already underway and the purchase is hoped to be completed before next summer.

The renewed application, passed unanimously by the Committee, demonstrates the determination of the Council to proceed with its plan to extend the Cemetery despite the proposal for an Ashdown landfill. They are required to provide for the burial needs of the local population and the existing cemetery is almost at full capacity. The policy to extend the existing cemetery has long been designated in the Rother District Local Plan (Policy BX10).

When the previous application was submitted, Ibstock fiercely objected to it, and when passed, took their objections as far as a Judicial Review in the High Court. It argued that the cemetery expansion was unsuitable as the quarry had been earmarked as a landfill site by the Waste Local Plan and that it hoped to use the field in question for stockpiling clay in this event. Their barrister stated that cemetery uses would expect "tranquillity" and this would be disturbed by the ‘noise of heavy machinery’ from the brickworks/landfill site and the visual impact had also not been considered. After two attempts, however, their challenge was finally dismissed on 13.1. 09 with costs awarded to RDC. (See Bexhill Observer 23.01.09)

The present application can perhaps be seen as a further challenge to Ibstock, laying ‘facts on the ground’ to dissuade them from their landfill plans. RDC made its opposition clear to the inclusion of Ashdown as a landfill site in ESCC’s Preferred Strategy for Waste during the recent consultation. The necessary expansion confirms their and BALI’s view that a landfill at Ashdown would be simply too close to local residences and amenities such as the Cemetery, the new Bexhill High School, the Highwoods and the Highwoods Golf Club.

Councillors were asked yesterday to consider the “attendant expectation of a quiet and peaceful atmosphere” at the Cemetery. It is not at all clear how such an atmosphere would be possible if both brickmaking and landfilling were to take place there, and consequently an increased amount of (waste) traffic to the site, all within earshot of cemetery users.

Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI, writes "There would likely also be the screeching of seagulls who gather over such sites and the smell of rotting rubbish. Burrowing rats and foxes are also attracted to waste and might also turn their attention to graves. The air would likely be polluted by dust and; given the steepness of the cemetery it is inconceivable that any screening could fully hide this monstrous carbuncle on the landscape.

"Bexhill residents deserve better than to be faced with such horrors at such sensitive often distressing times when they visit their departed loved ones and the loved ones deserve better than a ‘plot by a dump’. But it is for Ibstock to withdraw its pernicious landfill plans not for the Council to withdraw its legitimate and necessary plans for the extension of the cemetery! A landfill would in any case be too close to the existing cemetery. A landfill is simply not wanted in this location- a beautiful quiet cemetery is."

Ibstock, through its lawyers, again objected to the current application on the grounds of "incompatibility with its present and future (landfilling) operations", that it is inconsistent with RDC’s Local Plan and that it contained no details of landscaping, screening etc. They also again argued that it was "premature" in the light of the field’s “potential use for stockpiling clay”.

The High Court previously rejected all these arguments given that Ibstock had no ownership rights over the field, that there was no current planning permission for a landfill (therefore its planned "future operations" were purely speculative) and that the Council did not have to address at this stage issues such as landscaping and screening. (Inevitably there will need to be in due course a full planning application by RDC to address these issues and create a suitable “buffer zone” (hedging etc.) between the Cemetery and the Brickworks.)

Thus while, of course, it is open to Ibstock to appeal against the Planning Committee’s decision there must be some doubt about whether they will. It is rather hoped that they will rather reconsider their plans for a landfill in such a sensitive location.

Nick Hollington BALI 19.03.2010

ESCC Freedom of Information Request re Ashdown Brickworks site

2010-02-12T21:20:00.001Z

By Ben Higgins, Bexhill Observer, published 11th February 2010
Read the original article on the Bexhill Observer Website

CLAIMS that East Sussex County Council is "actively progressing" Ashdown Brickworks towards a planning stage for landfill have intensified following a Freedom of Information request.

Details of a meeting held last September have emerged, revealing ESCC officers were in discussion with a waste operator and the owners of the Turkey Road site at least five weeks before the official consultation.
Nick Hollington (pictured right), chairman of Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration (BALI), who made the FOI request of ESCC for all correspondence about the potential use of Ashdown Brickworks as a landfill site, said the document showed a 'dangerously hasty' attitude towards the site which is the only named option in ESCC's waste plan.
He said: 'Why are they having meetings with the site owners and waste contractors even before the consultation begins?
'East Sussex should be in a neutral position. It should not be actively progressing discussions with potential applicants for land disposal while a major policy review is taking place.' ESCC has refused to release all its correspondence about Ashdown Brickworks, claiming to do so would not be in the public interest.
When asked if similar meetings had been held to discuss other possible sites, an ESCC spokesman said the county had entered into correspondence with some landowners, but it was too early to speak with other operators because alterative sites have only been narrowed down to areas of search.

The document dated September 16, 2009, shows four ESCC officers, including senior members of the waste and minerals planning team, met with site owners Ibstock and a director of Cory Environmental waste disposal, as well as representatives from Scott Wilson, a consultancy firm hired by ESCC.
The group discussed key obstacles to overcome before Ashdown could be used for landfill, citing access and engineering issues but making no mention of the impact on Bexhill's population, or the nearby environment.
Ibstock, which have waste contracts with Cory Environmental at four other sites in the UK, are reported as 'pleased that Ashdown is being considered'.
The document concludes: 'Preferred strategy consultation starts on 21.10.09, however ESCC would welcome ongoing dialogue with Ibstock/Cory regarding Ashdown.'
One key question is whether ESCC has gone beyond its remit of ensuring all the options it has put forward are worth investigating. Actively helping one site progress towards a planning stage could weaken the consultation process.
MP Greg Barker said: 'The documents I have seen do lend themselves to the suggestion that they could be some form of pre-disposal towards this site which would make a mockery of the alleged consultation process.
'I'm not happy that officers are withholding information and am seeking the advice of the House of Commons library as to whether they are legally entitled to do that.
'I'm determined to fight this proposal every step of the way.'
An ESCC spokesman said: 'In 2004 new government legislation was introduced, which directed local authorities to deliver new style planning documents, such as the Waste and Minerals Core Strategy. Government advice is that for local authorities to achieve this, they must talk to interested parties.
'We have, therefore, had in-depth discussions with a range of bodies and operators, including Ibstock, Veolia and Bretts.
'We met with Ibstock because the Ashdown Brickworks site has been proposed for landfill for some years. In 2006 the proposal reached the position of being formally allocated for land disposal when the Waste Local Plan was adopted – making it part of the statutory development plan, which is the document we judge planning applications against.
'We will continue to talk with any party that is relevant to the progress of the document – this includes BALI. Rather than weaken the consultation process, rounded discussions will help improve our understanding of the final document.
'We would also point out we are aware of the potential issues with landfill at Ashdown Brickworks, including impact on the local community.'
The document will be available to view in full, here, from Monday morning (February 15).

BALI Chairman Newsletter - January 2010

2010-01-29T21:52:00.000Z

The consultation is over; the fight continues. While feeling satisfied that we, BALI, and the people of Bexhill, have done our utmost in the current campaign to remove Ashdown Brickworks as a landfill site from the County’s waste plan, we know from past experience how obdurate the County Council is regarding using this site for waste and so we cannot and will not relax our efforts.

Our sources tell us that there have been over 800 objections to the County's 'Preferred Strategy for Waste' since its publication last October. Furthermore many of these have been from local groups representing up to (in the case of Highwoods Golf Club) 800 members.

Rother District Council, an extremely important 'statutory consultee', has strongly opposed the proposal to use Ashdown Brickworks for landfill and councillors and representatives of all political parties have expressed wholehearted support for BALI in the local press, which has also come out strongly against this pernicious proposal that would damage our town in so many ways.

After RDC's submission, possibly the most important submission is BALI's own, long in the preparation and submitted only last week, consisting of 27 pages of detailed forceful argument in planning terms by our expert legal-planning consultants DMH Stallard. We take no credit for this; such work is expensive and has only been possible through the generous donations from local groups and individuals to our Fighting Fund both before and during our current campaign. We can but thank them profusely.

It is important to note, however, that Bexhill are not the only community opposing the County’s waste plans. The Preferred Strategy vaguely suggests – on a map – as an addition or alternative to Ashdown, 'areas of search' for landraise sites (like Pebsham) in the Low Weald which have been identified as being near such communities as Golden Cross, Hellingly, Hailsham, Chiddingly and others. Their parish councils have accordingly formed their own action group to oppose landfill/raise in their area supported by their MPs Charles Hendry and Norman Baker. (In a similar way our own MP Greg Barker has unwaveringly supported BALI for over 7 years and continues to be a 'tower of strength' for our cause).

'NIMBYS!' we might say – or they might say of us. We don't, of course: they have the same right to defend their local community as ourselves, and they take the same view of our struggle in Bexhill. I was pleased to be invited to their packed public meeting in Hailsham, last Saturday and gratified to hear that they do not suggest simply that waste be buried in the ground at Ashdown. Rather they are strongly urging East Sussex County Council, as is BALI, to rethink their whole waste policy. Landfill or landraise are mediaeval solutions to the massive modern problem of waste disposal. They are saying to East Sussex, and BALI firmly agrees: 'Go back to the Drawing Board!' Make a new plan- to further reduce waste (e.g. packaging), reuse it, recycle it more and if it has to be disposed, compost it or at least recover energy from it through the many 21st century technologies available. If whole countries, like Sweden or Germany, more or less do without any landfill today, how is it that ESCC is now planning to put waste in the ground until at least 2026?!

WILL THEY (ESCC) LISTEN? - is the big question. They will certainly register all the objections made and make a massive database which will be made available to the public on the ESCC website. But will they listen? We shall now have to wait and see.

WHEN WILL WE KNOW? - whether Ashdown is included in the next stage of the plan? The next stage, called the 'pre-submission Core Strategy', was scheduled to be published in February. ESCC Waste Team , however, have admitted that, partly owing to the extension of the consultation period, they are way behind schedule and that they need far more time to sift the massive number of objections and further investigate the viability of both Ashdown and the landraise areas of search. We therefore do not expect to hear anything conclusive before April or May 2010 (or even June).

SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW? Just wait? No way! The fight has to go on and we shall use every opportunity to continue to oppose the landfill plan in the coming months.

Our consultants have requested ESCC - and they have agreed – to enter into a continuing dialogue with BALI while the Core Strategy is being prepared in which we hope to further influence the process before the Core Strategy is published.
We will receive shortly the results of our request to ESCC under the Freedom of Information Act to reveal all their records of their dealings with the Ashdown site-owners Ibstock. You will recall that Ibstock have already entered into an agreement with a waste contractor to make a planning application to landfill the Ashdown quarries, they say 'with the encouragement of East Sussex County Council'. We need to ensure that this is not so and that ESCC are proceeding with their plan transparently and in good faith with the people of Bexhill.
We will continue to liaise with Bexhill and Rother County Councillors to ensure they do their job in defending our town and fully representing their residents’ and the District Council's clearly stated views. We are not convinced that the rules of ‘predetermination’ prevent them from speaking out to reassure us of their current opposition to the landfill proposal. There is much more they could say and do to satisfy our and the Bexhill community's concerns.
We will continue to campaign in the press and other media, addressing meetings and keeping in touch with our increasing numbers of supporters. While hoping we will win at this stage and that Ashdown will be excluded from the Core Strategy, we must prepare for the eventuality that Ashdown is still included, in which case we will simply have to fight all over again – we will never give in - in the new consultation that will follow. If it is included, however, ESCC will need to give far more details of their proposal and explain why they have not heeded all our objections.
We are already preparing for this by regrouping into 2 new committees, the BALI Campaign Committee and the BALI Fundraising Committee. We will be shortly writing to those who have kindly offered help at or since our public meeting whether by joining these committees or supporting them by delivering leaflets, assisting at our fundraising events etc.
If you would like to help BALI, and have not already applied, please phone me on 01424 843046 or (Fundraising) Mike Rosner on 01424 845688. If you wish to make a donation – and we certainly need further funds - please send it to the BALI Treasurer, Pauline Rosner, at 16 Hillborough Close, Little Common, Bexhill on Sea TN39 3TW.

I would finally like to thank all those who have given BALI such tremendous support in defending our environment and our community of Bexhill.

Nick Hollington Chairman, BALI

BALI Chairman Newsletter - December 2009

2009-12-11T21:54:00.000Z

Christmas & New Year Message from Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI
as published in the Bexhill Observer dated 11th December 2009

Dear Sir/Madam

On behalf of BALI, I would like to thank all those who have supported us, including your newspaper, in our opposition to the proposed landfill at Ashdown Brickworks since East Sussex County Council published its new waste plan in September.

This has been a hectic time for BALI, but we have been strongly encouraged by the volume of letters, emails and phone calls we have received as also the reception of the public at the meetings we have addressed. The climax of our campaign was, of course, our packed Public Meeting on November 6th, where speaker after speaker, representing various community groups or political parties, or simply themselves, spoke forceful and intelligently of the many devastating dangers of such a huge dump so close to residents' homes and local amenities such as the Highwoods and the new Bexhill High School.

We believe such a landfill will adversely affect our whole town in various ways in terms of waste truck routes, air pollution, depreciation in house prices, effects on tourism and business, etc. all of which will, if the proposal is implemented, militate against the quality of life we enjoy in Bexhill and the economic regeneration we seek. Bexhill has done enough in disposing of the County's waste: we cannot continually be the County's dumping ground.

If we are to be called 'NIMBYS' so be it, but no-one else will protect our environment if we ourselves don't. In fact, however, BALI does not support the dumping of waste in the ground anywhere. It is the most environmentally damaging of all ways of dealing with rubbish and wastes valuable resources which could be reused, recycled or recovered. Neither does it encourage the essential reduction of waste which we need to achieve. In any case, in the 21st Century there are many new technologies available to deal with waste which are far more efficient and friendly. Landfill should be history.

There are no benefits whatsoever for Bexhill in accepting a landfill as your previous correspondent Mr. Minter has suggested. Waste trucks will simply arrive and dump their loads at Ashdown (it will not be a civic amenity) creating little employment gain to counteract jobs that may be lost elsewhere, even perhaps at the Brickworks itself. Rother District and its taxpayers will receive no financial reward while the site-owner and waste contractor will pocket huge sums of money at our expense. There is no 'other side of the coin'.

In this respect it is important to understand that it is not your local Rother District Council that is to blame: they only collect your domestic waste; it is East Sussex County Council (ESCC) who dispose of it. Local District councillors of all political parties have, we are glad to say, now come out strongly against the proposed landfill. It is time now to put further pressure on your County Council and County Councillors.

Many people have already written strong letters of objection to ESCC. If you haven't done so yet, please do so before the deadline of January 15th, 2010. If you need any help, we have published an information sheet explaining how to object and where to send your objections. This is available on our website or by phoning BALI on 07814 895874. Please use this number also If you would like further information or feel you could help BALI or give a donation to our Fighting Fund.

Finally BALI would like to wish all our supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. In 2010, I believe, if we can stay united against this pernicious proposal, we can defeat it and finally remove this dark spectre that has been hanging over our town for so long. But it may be a long hard fight with many battles yet to come.

Nick Hollington

Chairman BALI

Link-Up Sparks Landfill Fears

2009-12-04T21:55:00.000Z

As Reported in the Bexhill Observer of 4th December 2009

The threat of landfill in Bexhill has grown with the news of an agreement between the owners of Ashdown Brickworks and a waste management company.

Brick manufacturer Ibstock, which runs the Turkey Road site, has signed an agreement with Cory Environmental, a leading waste disposal company.
Six-monthly meetings between Ibstock and BALI, which began in 2001, have ceased as the company moves into the early stage of evaluating the potential for landfill.
Nick Hollington, chairman of BALI, condemned the move, saying 'It was a shock to us. We never thought this would happen so soon.
'You would think that they would wait until the current consultation process is completed.
'It really is thumbing their noses up to Bexhill.
'It's saying "you can have your public meetings, you can send your letters to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) but we are just going ahead."
'I find it utterly deplorable.'
The move comes in the same week ESCC announced an extension to the consultation process.
A spokesman from Ibstock, which has a 10-year history of collaborating with Cory, rejected the idea that they were trying to rush through a planning application saying: "I cannot say that we are going to proceed with an application.
"We would need to do it with a partner, and that depends entirely on Cory and if they decide it's a project they would like to take further.
"An application would probably take two or three years to put together. No one could predict the length of time."
Questioned over the timing of the move, the spokesman said: "We see that there may be a better opportunity for us now than there may have been in the past."
Speculation that Ibstock may have been encouraged to talk to Cory by ESCC was denied by the county council, whose spokesman said in a statement: "Any operator or landowner can submit a planning application for a new waste management facility at any time."
Mr Hollington will lodge a Freedom Of Information request to reveal all correspondence between Ibstock, ESCC and Cory Environmental.
Rother District Council (RDC) and local MP Greg Barker have both come out fighting this week.
As a key consultee, the council submission to ESCC concludes:'It is premature to put forward Ashdown Brickworks as a location for waste disposal in the Core Strategy and it should therefore be excluded'.
Mr Barker said "I'm alarmed and surprised that Ibstock is so actively pursuing an agenda which runs contrary to the best interests of the town.
"I have requested a meeting with lead cabinet member for East Sussex to ascertain what officers at Lewes have been saying, and I'm supporting the Freedom Of Information requests to ascertain exactly what's been going on.
"If the officers are giving encouraging signals to Ashdown Brickworks it makes a mockery of the whole consultation and waste plan process."
Mr Hollington added:"People must not stop sending in their forms. I think this indicates we have a long fight and I don't think the public will take this lying down."
He also called for more support from both district and county councillors. Although some restrictions, reported in last week's Observer, affect county councillors, the Standards Board clearly distinguishes between predisposition and predetermination.
The document reads "It is not a problem for councillors to be predisposed. Predisposition is where a councillor holds a view in favour of or against an issue, for example a planning permission, but they have an open mind to the merits of the argument before they make the final decision at the council meeting.
"This includes having formed a preliminary view about how they will vote before they attend the meeting, and / or expressing that view publicly. They may even have been elected specifically because of their views on this issue."
The consultation deadline has been extended to Friday, January 15th to accommodate parish council meeting schedules.
To comment on the plans, visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk/haveyoursay (a better link is The ESCC Consultation Portal website)send your comments by post to: Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council, C4 Waste and Minerals Policy (AP), FREEPOST (LW43), Lewes, BN7 1BR.
For information about protesting, please contact Nick Hollington on 01424 843046.

See the Bexhill Observer website.

BALI Chairman Newsletter - November 2009

2009-11-23T21:38:00.000Z

Our feet have hardly touched the ground since the extraordinarily successful Public Meeting on 6th November regarding which our Consultant commented: "BALI is to be congratulated for all the organization required for this most excellent meeting-certainly one of the biggest and best I have ever attended".

I have written personally to thank all of the speakers, also to the 60 or so people whose names we collected who were unfortunately locked out. Greg Barker MP has also written to them. If anyone was locked out and we didn't collect your name please accept my apologies.

The reaction from the public has been phenomenal and it is clear that so many people have submitted objections to the proposed landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. They often have sent BALI copies – some of them exceptionally well argued - of their letters of objection to ESCC, many using our Consultant's guide to 'How to Object?' given out at the meeting and sent to all those 'locked out' as well as many others. I shall be giving this guide out again when I address the Town Forum tonight. We are approaching the last week of the Consultation and we are making a last push to make sure as many people as possible submit their objections.

The phone hardly stops ringing with enquiries, although many people use our email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk. Some of these are from those who would be particularly affected. For instance, Alex Skilton of Chestnut Meadow Camping and Caravan Park emailed us yesterday to ask whether any "buffer zone" was required between a landfill zone and tourist amenities. Such a "buffer zone" is indeed mentioned in the Preferred Strategy but the distance is not specified. We would argue that it should be the 500 metres used for the SSSIs (though seemingly not applied to the Highwoods) or the 1km from urban areas applied to landraise sites.

Donations and Other Practical Help

Many people have been asking where to send donations (Please send to: BALI Treasurer Pauline Rosner, 16 Hillborough Close, Little Common, Bexhill on Sea TN39 3TW ) or if they can offer practical help. Martin Hargreaves of Sidley has produced an adapted map of Google Earth illustrating the distance of the quarries from local amenities and has produced his own illustrated flyer in "layman’s language" to distribute locally.

New Concerns

Also people feed in new concerns or information or make independent enquiries - which we fully encourage. Russell Dufton fed in to us his particular concern about low-level nuclear waste, which the government recently decided could be put in ordinary landfill sites. Russell has also made and is continuing to make enquiries of Euro MPs such as the leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas.

Health Concerns

Other residents are concerned about the fly ash and bottom ash from incinerators to be placed in landfill which can amount to 25-30% of the waste burnt and contains dioxins. I have referred them to the excellent Friends of the Earth report on "The Safety of Incinerator Ash".

Indeed local residents are very concerned about health issues for themselves or their children attending the local High School and quite rightly so. Already, one resident pointed out, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reported last year "significantly poorer health among residents of Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne than in the rest of the County."

Alternative Uses for the Ashdown Site

We have received a lot of correspondence suggesting alternative and better uses for the Ashdown site which could become an important resident and tourist amenity.

BALI has already made a registered suggestion to Rother District Council in their Local Development Framework that there be a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods, the Ashdown quarries and surrounding ancient woodland and rolling countryside and farmland, but we have currently neither the time nor expertise to develop such a project.

Alan Malpass of the Highwoods supports such a scheme and Sandra Melvin of Bexhill in Bloom has made some rough sketches of how she believes the quarries could be restored and landscaped. We have written to all those interested and several environmentalists such as Dr Edward Echlin suggesting a parallel or 'sister' group to BALI be formed to formulate more detailed proposals with the aid of experts in the field.

Support from Local Groups

Many local community groups I have been helping write their submissions, most importantly Highwoods Preservation Society: please read their submission.

The Highwoods Golf Club voted unanimously at their recent AGM to support our campaign and to donate £500 to BALI. (A further £100 was received from the Club Captain on behalf of the golfers.) The Club Secretary (John Hollands) has also submitted the Club's objections to ESCC on behalf of its 805 members asking these to be considered as 805 separate objections.

Support from Local Councillors

It is also heartening that more Councillors have come through to support us, as illustrated by letters from them to the Bexhill Observer. But they are still only a small proportion of the 38 Rother District Councillors, 18 of whom represent Bexhill and we still need and are trying to get far more RDC Councillor support.

Also no County Councillor has yet stated clearly his or her opposition to the proposals - and yet this is largely a County Council matter. They claim they must not "predetermine" themselves, but our legal advice is that this does not mean they cannot say anything. They can be "predisposed" to opposing the landfill, saying for example that "On the evidence I have seen, a landfill in this location would not be suitable or workable", as long as it is clear that they have not entirely made up their mind.

Response from Rother District Council

We are waiting for the official response of Rother District Council (RDC) to the Preferred Strategy as key 'statutory consultee'. We are advised that if RDC are clearly against the proposed landfill it is unlikely that ESCC will proceed to place it in their Core Strategy.

We are also hoping the Bexhill Town Charter Trustees might accept a motion of opposition to the landfill in the name of protecting the town of Bexhill and have written to the Mayor and several Trustees accordingly.

BALI's latest Action

BALI's Official Response

Our Consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard is now preparing BALI's official response to the ESCC which, apart from Rother District Council's own response, will probably be the most important submission, which is not to undervalue those made by local groups or members of the public.

Geoff, who spoke at the Public Meeting and gave detailed advice to residents on how to object to the proposals, is an ex-planner with bags of experience and knowledge of planning law. In 2005 he had a famous victory representing the Mountfield action group in successfully removing the proposal for a waste incinerator in Mountfield from the ESCC Waste Local Plan. Let's hope he achieves the same result for BALI and Bexhill!

Geoff is also pressing ESCC to investigate the other 'opportunity areas' mentioned as possibilities for landraise sites in the Preferred Strategy but not detailed in any way. These have been the subject of a study by Scott Wilson which is hidden away in the Supporting Papers to the Strategy, but this has been so far a desk-based study with no detailed out-of-the-office investigation.

BALI will insist that every one of these areas is investigated for potential sites and that these sites are then compared on a level playing field with Ashdown. We will be asking in particular why they consider that these be subject to a buffer zone of 1 kilometre from urban areas but this constraint is not applied to Ashdown.

BALI attends the The Link Road Enquiry

BALI's Mike and Pauline Rosner and Barbara Rogers have been attending the Link Road Public Inquiry in Hastings where they have objected to what they/we see as an attempt to spend large sums of public money on a major access road to the Ashdown site. This is not the Link Road itself but a spur road off it from a point above Glover's Farm leading to the A269 which would meet up with it at a point where a service road could be driven in (on the other side) to the Ashdown site. This road is already in Council plans and is called euphemistically the 'Country Avenue'.

BALI Committee Changes

But our main activity in BALI at the moment is to ‘regroup’ and expand our committees and increase the number of our active helpers. This might seem strange in that we would surely hope that Ashdown is removed from the ESCC Core Strategy as a result of all the objections made in the current consultation? This may indeed happen but, after 7 years of fighting this proposal, BALI is only too well aware of the resistance of ESCC to letting go of this proposal and the determination of the site owners Ibstock to pursue a landfill on their site for their commercial profit.

While hopeful of success in removing Ashdown from the Core Strategy, BALI -and Bexhill- must be prepared for the ‘worst-case scenario’ that Ashdown is (still) included in what’s called the “presubmission Core Strategy” scheduled to be published in February 2010 (but I believe it will be much later, when a further consultation will be held.

We must be prepared for a long fight, which is why BALI, a small team this past year, is currently regrouping into two enlarged committees: a Campaign Committee and a Fundraising Committee. Many people, on the back of the Public Meeting and your newspaper coverage have come forward to offer help and we shall be writing to them this week to see what particular help they are willing to offer.

Join in the Campaign!

If you haven't given your name and would be willing to help BALI, please ring Nick Hollington on 01424 843046, or call 01424 220109 or 01424 845688, or mobile 07814 895874, or write to PO Box 194 Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 9BD, or email info@nolandfillatbexhill.org.uk.

On behalf of BALI I'd like to thank all our helpers and supporters for their encouragement to us to go on fighting, with your help to stop this awful proposal which will blight our and our children's lives for over 20 years, if it comes to fruition. we will continue to fight tooth and nail to prevent a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. If Bexhill is united against it, and stays united, I believe we will win.

Nick Hollington

Chairman, BALI Campaign Committee

23rd November 2009

Chairmans Speech to the Public Meeting November 6th 2009

2009-11-16T22:29:00.000Z

BALI Chairman's Speech

Nick Hollington: 6th November 2009

First of all, on behalf of BALI, I'd like to welcome you all to this meeting and particularly the speakers who have so generously given their time to address us here tonight, and to Greg Barker, our MP, for kindly agreeing to Chair it.

For many in the audience, particularly our loyal BALI supporters, this third meeting here in this very hall, with this very same Chairman – we met here in 2002 and 2005 - to oppose a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks, must feel a bit like what is nowadays called Groundhog Day in reference to the film of the same name about a man who continually repeats the same day over and over again, seemingly trapped in an endless time-loop.
I have to say I have often felt like that myself these past few years.

I believe, however, that we can now break this cycle, as did the character in the film, and remove this dark spectre that continually hangs over us of a massive waste dump on our doorstep.

I meet or get calls almost every day from people who ask me about BALI and the proposed landfill at Ashdown and I really enjoy giving them information and hearing their views and, above all, receiving their encouragement for what BALI is doing. What I have to say I don't enjoy is hearing some people claiming to know what is going to happen regarding a landfill at Ashdown whether it's of the 'Oh! It's never going to happen' variety or the 'Oh! That's bound to happen whatever we do' kind. I have to tell you – and I'm sure the gentlemen from ESCC here tonight will confirm it - that NO firm decision has yet been reached on a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. At the same time, I strongly believe that, if we do nothing, a landfill will probably happen, with all its egregious consequences for the community of Bexhill, consequences that any people here from the Pebsham area have had to suffer, I'm sorry to say, for the last 25 years or so. Doing nothing, as they say, is not an option.

Why, you may well ask, is it so difficult to defeat this pernicious proposal, which to many of us here seems so blindingly obviously wrong? Well there are lots of reasons, but three main ones I think.

Firstly, Ashdown is what is called a minerals void, a large hole in the ground (in fact two holes) caused by the excavation of clay. Traditionally, the simple answer to waste has been to bury it in such holes and of course this is also of great value to the owners of the holes, who eventually will otherwise be required to restore the land at their own cost when the pit is fully excavated, and in effect, by this means, get paid vast sums for doing so.

Secondly, Ashdown was, in 2006, despite BALI's opposition, identified in what is called the Waste Local Plan as the only site for landfill in the County. Now we have come to a new plan, what's called a Core Strategy for Waste. Unfortunately, however, there's a tradition that I've never really understood that if something goes in one plan it is more or less automatically transferred to the next. In that case, I'd say, what's the point in making new plans?

Thirdly – and this is controversial and would be denied by many – Councillors in the rest of East Sussex and Brighton and Hove will expect the waste to come to Ashdown because otherwise it would raise the possibility of a landfill in their area. They will say 'There's a big hole in Bexhill. It's quite obvious it should go there'. They might add with their thoughts, if not their words 'After all, we've always sent our waste to Bexhill'.

This is why it's so important that our local Bexhill councillors defend our interests. No-one else will!

So, given this heavy pressure to use Ashdown as a landfill site, how can we defeat this proposal and emerge out of Groundhog Day? How can we get Ashdown removed from the Core Strategy in the Consultation that is now taking place? Well, our Consultant, Geoff Smith will be giving us detailed advice on this shortly, but let me, if I may, set the scene:

The gentlemen from ESCC Waste Team here tonight, who are highly professional people to whom I trust you will listen to respectfully, have a huge job, which I don't envy, to manage the approximate 2 million tonnes of waste produced in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove each year. I imagine it must be like a giant jigsaw puzzle where you have to fit different pieces in different places: somewhere an incinerator, somewhere a waste transfer station, somewhere composting .... and, let's face it, nobody ideally wants any waste facility in their backyard. It's a difficult task and they are seriously trying to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill but, at the end of the day, there's this big jigsaw piece of waste that needs to be landfilled somewhere. So then there is what appears to be a big suitable space for that jigsaw piece in Bexhill. It's a mineral void hole in the ground, perhaps it's even the right size. It looks on the surface as if this jigsaw piece goes there. But.. a big but.. problems arise when you try to put that piece in. When you do, I believe, however you twist it and turn it, it simply doesn't’t fit Ashdown.

Because what it has to fit is not just the physical space – and that is even subject to doubt as the quarries are not yet fully excavated, but it has also to fit government and county policies which determine where you can and where you can’t put a landfill site.

Now, it may surprise you to know that BALI supports all government policies regarding the siting of landfill and particularly ESCC's own policy in its new plan. It's called 'Spatial Policy CS6'. We have no quarrels with it. We think it's excellent. We just don't understand how the Council could possibly select Ashdown as a landfill site under that – their own-policy.

Let me give you a few examples of what I mean:

Policy CS6 states that the Council must demonstrate that there is no unacceptable impact on the local environment.

In more detail it states that a landfill site should not be situated less than 500 metres away from valued environments such as ancient woodland, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and areas of outstanding natural beauty. But you surely couldn't have a more valued environment in Bexhill than the Highwoods – yes, ancient woodland, an SSSI - and it's less than not 500 metres, but 50 metres away from the quarries and it's unique flora and fauna would be devastated by a landfill so close to its borders.
Policy CS6 also states that the Council must demonstrate that there is no unacceptable impact on communities.
Well I don't think the people in this audience and the community of 5000 or so people living within a mile of the site - and many much less than that, would agree for one minute that the impact of a landfill at Ashdown would be acceptable. In detail the Strategy talks about effect on the users of local amenities. Well how about, for instance, the people who daily visit their departed loved ones in the cemetery 250 metres away, the golfers at the Highwoods Golf Club just across the road from the site and I believe, most importantly of all, the 1600 or so young people who will be studying in the new Bexhill High School being built just behind us and within 800 metres from the Ashdown site.
I give one more example but there are others;
Policy CS6 states that the Council must demonstrate that there is good access to the main areas of waste arisings in East Sussex
and I would remind you that by far the greatest area of waste arisings is Brighton and Hove. How could they possibly demonstrate that? Good access? Sorry – hopeless access! Waste trucks can't possibly use Turkey road, Whydown Road, Pear Tree Lane, St Mary'’s Lane, Gunters Lane, Sidley High Street. Even if they were to slip an access road in from the Ninfield Road, the A269, that road is insufficient and how would that slip road entrance be accessed from Hastings or Bexhill?
Of course, what they need is the Link Road and then a substantial spur road from it leading to the A269 and then the slip road. Well that might happen in 10-15 years time, but the Council needs landfill sites now: they don't have any at the present time.

So the jigsaw piece simply doesn't fit - and if they tried to make it fit, to force it in, it will be a disaster. But they might try, so we must act.

So What Do We Have To Do?

Well three things again and many of these are already underway.

BALI needs to present a strong case in planning terms to ESCC as to why their Preferred Option for landfill at Ashdown is, and I use planning terms here: 'unsafe', 'unsound' and not 'effective'. In common parlance that simply means wrong.
One change in modern planning practice is that the Council must have what is called a strong 'evidence base' to justify any identification of a site for landfill. We believe that the evidence in the case of Ashdown is 'flawed' -another planning term- and we will present our own robust evidence base to show that Ashdown is unsuitable and unworkable in the time-frame required. Through the generosity of our supporters we have been able to afford to instruct a distinguished legal – planning Consultant Geoff Smith, who will speak to you tonight, and his case is almost ready now to submit in the current consultation.
Rother District Council will also make a submission to ESCC as what's called a 'statutory consultee' and their submission will carry great weight. We hope that they will again point out the flaws in the proposal that make it currently unworkable and therefore 'unsafe' and 'unsound'.
Last, but not least, we need the CLEAR VOCAL SUPPORT OF OUR MP (We have it), OUR COUNCILLORS (some give it, some still don'’t, I'm afraid) and the GOOD PEOPLE OF BEXHILL who have shown their support by turning out it in such numbers on this damp miserable November night and who can each play their part by making submissions to the consultation and by writing to their councillors urging their support for BALI.

In the film GROUNDHOG DAY, the main character uses his continual experiences of reliving the past to improve himself, to learn more about his surroundings and to work with others for good. One day he wakes up - and the time-loop is broken. It's a new dawn! In the same way, if we can defeat this proposal - but we must act now!- we can move on with our lives and start planning something really special for the Ashdown site once it is excavated and many of our speakers will address this much more attractive prospect this very evening.

Again, I thank you for coming this evening.

Nick Hollington, Chairman, BALI

Unity Against Landfill Plan for Ashdown Brickworks

2009-11-13T22:08:00.000Z

By Ben Higgins - Published Bexhill Observer Date: 13 November 2009

HUNDREDS of landfill protesters packed out a public meeting about the fate of Ashdown Brickworks.
Politics were laid aside for the event, as speakers from all corners of the town united in solidarity against the possibility of a new landfill site.

Bexhill High School hall reached its 350 capacity well before the 7pm start. Around 60 people were locked out in the rain.

Bexhill's MP Greg Barker, who chaired the meeting, said: "There will be a battle to stop this site being used for landfill. There's a huge amount at stake — the future of the town, the value of your homes, the environment you pass on to the next generation and the health of our residents.

""We can win if we all come together."

Donations on the night raised £1,170 to support Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration (BALI), which organised Friday's meeting.

The two-and-a-half-hour meeting, the third of its kind since 2002, gave context to East Sussex County Council's (ESCC) decision to name Ashdown Brickworks, Turkey Road, as the preferred choice for a major new landfill site designed to take 4.5million tonnes of waste from East Sussex and Brighton and Hove until 2026.

Geoff Smith, BALI's legal consultant, urged residents to submit protests and passed around a handout explaining the best way to register an objection.

He said: "Some people think all the letters you write will not make any difference at all. I know there are key times when letters and submissions matter. This is that time. They will matter. We have a really big chance to take Ashdown Brickworks out of the waste plan once and for all."

ESCC was represented by Ian Blake, a team manager for the Waste and Mineral Planning Policy document, published in September, in which Ashdown Brickworks is the only site specifically named and highlighted on a map detailing possible landfill locations.

After explaining his role, Mr Blake took questions from an audience angered by the prospect of accepting around 1,120 tonnes of the county's waste each day for 11 years, during which he confirmed ESCC plans to ignore government recommendations that the new landfill accept 8.8 per cent of London's waste – 106,000 tonnes a year.

A procession of Bexhill's community figures outlined the damage they believed the landfill could cause.

Alan Malpass, president of Highwoods Preservation Society, said the landfill would be a "tragedy" for the nearby Site of Special Scientific Interest, and warned of a devastating explosion in the population of rats and gulls.

Dominic Manning, of Rother Environmental Group, and Dr Edward Echlin both counselled a responsible attitude towards recycling before Stuart Earl, of the Little Common Business Association, spoke about the damage such a landfill would do for the town's business community.

Brian Storkey, of the Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, said: "Bexhill absolutely depends on tourism for our shops to survive. This could deter big business from investing, and small businesses from starting up.

Mr Storkey, of the Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, continued: "It could be disastrous. One thing is certain – it will not be a visitor attraction."

Further speeches from two of the 12 Rother District councillors who attended, Cllrs Forster and Lendon, added weight to the objectors, balanced by a cautious approach from Cllr Michael Ensor, also a county councillor, who said he was "neither definitely for, nor against the plans", but encouraged people to comment.

Cllr Lendon's 93-year-old father, Ronald Lendon MBE, told Bexhill to "have none of it", and remembered bad experiences of St Mary's Lane landfill when he was a Bexhill councillor 50 years ago.

Closing the meeting, Greg Barker said: "The town turned out in force tonight and sent one very clear message. We will not stand for a landfill site at Ashdown Brickworks and the people of Bexhill will fight this proposal every step of the way.""

BALI chairman Nick Hollington added: "BALI was very satisfied with the meeting overall, with such a vast range of speakers from different backgrounds and a great public response which humbled us and from which we take great encouragement.

"We hope that everybody will express their objections in the ESCC consultation and in letters to their councillors. In the latter respect, while some councillors came out strongly against the landfill, we would have liked to have seen more support from them and I trust this will be more forthcoming in the coming weeks."

Report on the Public Meeting 6th November 2009

2009-11-07T22:49:00.000Z

Information about the Public Meeting and Links to the Minutes and other relevant articles.

Thank you to everyone who turned out in the rain and came along to the Public Meeting on 6th November, especially to those who were unable to get in to the meeting to hear the speakers but who wanted to have their say.

Thank you also to those who generously donated to the campaign at the meeting - the fantastic sum of £1,169 was raised.

Please read:
- BALI's minutes of the public meeting, and
- the speech notes from the meeting of Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI.

Read the Bexhill Observer write up of the meeting.

Further news and developments will be published on this website as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please do make your views known via one of the ways set out below but importantly, please let East Sussex County Council know your views and objections.

How to Object To The Landfill Proposal

Your chance to let East Sussex County Council know what you think about their Preferred Strategy for Waste has been extended until 15th January 2010.

You can comment online at http://consult.eastsussex.gov.uk or submit comments by post to: Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council, C4 Waste and Minerals Policy (AP), FREEPOST LW43, Lewes, BN7 1BE. For telephone enquiries the ESCC number is 01273 481846.

We have set out some Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (and supporting paragraphs) which you may find informative and useful.

YOU CAN HELP IN MANY WAYS:

Please read the Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (and supporting paragraphs),
Put your views to ESCC in the Consultation:
- online here: http://consult.eastsussex.gov.uk, or
- By Freepost to: Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council, C4 Waste and Minerals Policy (AP), FREEPOST LW43, Lewes, BN7 1BE.
Write to our MP, Greg Barker, who chaired the public meeting: details at www.gregorybarker.com,
Write to your local District and County Councillors: details of your Councillors can be found on the:
- Rother District Website: Councillors List
- East Sussex County Website: Councillors List
Join our BALI Committee to fight the dump or volunteer help us deliver leaflets, fundraise, etc.
Donate to BALI's "Fighting Fund" to help cover our legal costs.

For further information contact BALI on 01424 843046, 01424 220109 or 01424 845688, or mobile 07814 895874, or write PO Box 194 Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 9BD.

You can also register your interest at www.gregorybarker.com or call the office on 01424 736861.

BALI Headline Comments on ESCC Preferred Strategy For Waste

2009-11-06T22:33:00.000Z

Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (& supporting paragraphs)
Waste & Minerals Policy, ESCC Preferred Strategy for Waste

(These comments are available for download in pdf format: Headline Comments: pdf)

Preferred Option Selection (section 12)

Although the Preferred Option states here that there will be further investigations into the identified areas of search, we consider it is unfair that only Ashdown Brickworks is referred to specifically. It should be assessed together with all the other identified areas of search.
Object to the complete paragraph which relates to Ashdown Brickworks as potentially suitable for landfill.
The Preferred Option should only explain the way in which ESCC intend to select sites for land disposal of waste. This selection process is described in the Preferred Strategy as:-
1. Identify and allocate Land Disposal Sites which are allocated avoiding water resources or 'valued environments' (adverse effects on the environment and on the community');
2. Identify potential at existing disposal sites, or at mineral voids, avoiding water resources and 'valued landscapes';
3. Allocate locations for land disposal sites for waste close to waste arisings, providing they satisfy the selection criteria.

Policy CS6 (6 'bullet points' in the 'Policy')(Section 12)

1. Ashdown Brickworks should not be included in the Primary Area of Search (Plan 4)

Ashdown Brickworks fails on both of the Council's key criteria for inclusion in the Primary Area of Search. It is within 500 metres of 'valued environments' such as areas of ecological importance. There are also concerns over the risk of water pollution and contamination of public water supplies.

If there is a need for a land disposal site for waste, there are several other sites which could be used. The Scott Wilson Report, which has been published as 'evidence base' for this Core Strategy, has stated that further detailed assessment of these areas is required. Until such work is carried out, Ashdown Brickworks should not be 'singled out' as a Preferred Option for waste disposal.

2. There will be an unacceptable impact on the environment

Ashdown Brickworks is very close to High Woods Site of Nature Conservation Interest. Also Little High Wood Site of Nature Conservation Interest is within the Ashdown brickworks site.

There are other potential risks to the ecology of the area, including harm to important breeding birds from scavenging birds, and potential adverse impacts to the ecology of ponds and woodland in the vicinity of the brickworks.

3. There would be cumulative adverse impacts on the Local Community. This harm would be greater than when the current Waste Local Plan was prepared.

As well as the inevitable adverse impact on the significant number of new homes within the vicinity of Ashdown brickworks, there is now also a new Bexhill High School for over 1600 pupils within 700 metres of the site. This will increase substantially the number of people either living, or at school, within 1500 metres of the site.

As well as the harm to the environment of the local residents and school children, there are a significant number of people who frequent the area in the vicinity of the brickworks for leisure purposes, such as members and guests at the High Woods Golf Club and those who enjoy the High Woods for woodland walks. Both of these locations are within 250 metres of the Ashdown brickworks site. Also, the Bexhill Cemetery, immediately to the east of the brickworks, could experience harm to its environment and particularly to its tranquility.

4. There is very poor vehicular access to the Ashdown Brickworks

The existing roads in the vicinity of Ashdown brickworks are totally unsuitable to service the use of Ashdown brickworks as a land disposal site.

In order for this site to be satisfactorily accessed by waste disposal vehicles, it would require the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road to be completed. This is currently programmed to open by the end of 2012, already 4 years later than planned. It would also require the construction of further roads in the area, as well as a new access into the site. This total infrastructure is very unlikely to be constructed for several years, if at all.

5. The availability of Ashdown brickworks for waste disposal by landfill is not confirmed

This Preferred Strategy, in Section 12, accepts that there are operational constraints to using the Ashdown brickworks site for landfill, and that its potential capacity for landfill together with its availability / timing would need to be established in more detail.

This uncertainty on the site's availability should lead the site selection process away from this site, for this reason alone, as the Preferred Strategy seeks a site which is available in the short-term. In the medium to long term there should be an increasing shift towards minimising waste; and disposing of waste in other more suitable ways, rather than through landfill.

Appendix A - Strategy for Implementation

Policy CS6 - Delete all References to Ashdown Brickworks

The Strategy for Implementation of land disposal facilities for residual waste should be based on the identification and allocation of suitable locations. These locations have not yet been agreed by East Sussex County Council or Brighton and Hove City Council. This is clearly stated in this Document (Section 12) and also in the Scott Wilson Land Disposal Area Identification Study October 2009. The specific references to Ashdown Brickworks in the 'Strategy for Implementation' is pre-judging the outcome of this Study.

Big Hitters take up the Rubbish Dump Fight

2009-11-06T22:09:00.000Z

Bexhill Observer Article: Published Date: 6th November 2009

Campaigners against a massive rubbish dump off Turkey Road expect a capacity 300 gathering at a protest meeting tonight.

The meeting is being organised by BALI, the local action group.
It will be held at Bexhill High School, Gunters Lane, at 7pm.

MP Greg Barker will chair the meeting which will be opened by BALI campaigner Nick Hollington. The gathering will then be briefed by legal and planning experts as well as local councillors and resident's groups and local conservation and environmental groups.

BALI has distributed 4,000 leaflets in an effort to drum up support for the meeting.

Mr Hollington said "East Sussex County Council are sending top executives from their Waste Team to make a powerpoint presentation of their Waste Strategy and our BALI Consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard will be 'replying' and explaining how people can object to the landfill in the Consultation that has just started.

2Then we have some very good environmental speakers, perhaps especially the well-known Alan Malpass who believes a landfill will decimate the bird population and wildlife of the adjacent Highwoods, a much-treasured beauty spot and Site of Special Scientific Interest. The key councillors will speak - it is eventually their views and decisions that will count.

"Finally we have an interesting 'double-act' of Ron Lendon MBE, a former Bexhill councillor who was instrumental in closing the St. Mary's Lane landfill in the 1960's, followed by his son, Cllr. Paul Lendon who, following his father's footsteps, is now opposing a landfill at Ashdown.

"Questions and speeches from the floor will take place at various stages and I expect a lot of local people will wish to give their views."

Other speakers will include Brian Storkey of Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and Stuart Earl of Little Common Business Association.

Mr Barker said "I hope that there will be a really good turnout for this important meeting. A huge landfill site at the Ashdown Brickworks would have huge and very negative implications for the whole town, not just nearby local residents.

But to fight this, we must form the widest possible coalition and engage positively in the process.

"The team at BALI have worked incredibly hard in recent years but now they need more help."

Read the original article on the Bexhill Observer website.

Ashdown Brickworks is first choice for a vast new landfill site

2009-10-02T21:59:00.000+01:00

Article By Ben Higgins: Published Date: 01 October 2009
Bexhill Observer October 2nd 2009

East Sussex County Council named the Turkey Road excavation as their preferred choice in a 133 page document released this week outlining their core strategy for waste production in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex until 2026.

At a meeting last Wednesday, ESCC Cabinet approved a planning timescale which sees applications discussed next year and work beginning in 2012.

Key local figures reacted swiftly to the news, with local MP Greg Barker calling a public meeting to launch a campaign against the proposals.

Nick Hollington, chair of the Bexhill Against Landfill Incineration group, labelled plans: "a pernicious proposal with a devastating effect on the whole town of Bexhill."

Rother District Council also oppose the plans. In a meeting on Monday, Nick asked Leader of the Council Carl Maynard if he recognised "the egregious effect such a landfill, if implemented, would have on the town of Bexhill and that it would set back, if not nullify, the Council's efforts to achieve its regeneration?"

Cllr Maynard responded, saying: "Rother District Council had consistently and fundamentally opposed the inclusion of the land at Pebsham and Ashdown Brickworks in the Waste Local Plan."

The relevant section of the waste plan reads, under the Preferred Option Selection heading: "The Waste Local Plan currently allocates Ashdown Brickworks as potentially suitable for Landfill."

"Ashdown Brickworks offers a substantial mineral void close to one of the major urban areas of waste arisings in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove."

Having been cleared by ESCC, the strategy now looks set for approval by Brighton and Hove City Council on October 15.

A six week period of public consultation will follow.

From October 21 to December 2, organisations such as BALI and Rother District Council, as well as members of the public, have the opportunity to submit their views. Details of how to contribute to the consultation will appear from October 21 2009 at an ESCC subsite: consult.eastsussex.gov.uk

Depending on levels of waste growth, it is estimated that between 34 and 37 million tonnes of waste will be produced by East Sussex and Brighton and Hove between 2011 and 2027.

With recycling taken into account, and the work of a new incinerator planned to open in Newhaven in 2012, the final figure for waste pumped into the new landfill by 2026 is estimated at 4.5million tonnes.

There are currently no restrictions on the type of waste that would be dumped.

The strategy does indicate other areas that could be considered, mostly around Uckfield and Lewes, but Ashdown Brickworks is the only confirmed specific option.

Nick Hollington, who will represent BALI in a consultation meeting with ESCC on November 5, said: "I think they are only going to look elsewhere if Ashdown is turned down as a location. If, as we hope to do, we come up with reasons why Ashdown is unacceptable. Then they will look at these areas of search."

BALI will argue the landfill will create an unacceptable impact on the local environment and communities.

Supporting this, members may mention the estimated 4,000 residents of west Bexhill living within one mile of the site, the flagship new High School half a mile away, the adjacent Bexhill Cemetery, and nearby Highwoods Nature Reserve, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

They will also argue the site cannot be delivered within the short time-frame required by ESCC.

Nick said: "The news is extremely serious and a wake-up call to the people of Bexhill, some of whom have doubted that the threat of a landfill was real. It's staring us in the face now, but if we can all get together to fight this monstrous plan we can defeat it. But we must act now."

Hundreds of residents attended a similar public meeting organised by Greg Barker in 2002 when the threat of a Bexhill Landfill first became apparent.

That meeting lead to the creation of BALI, and the two offices have now joined forces with local councillors and environmental groups to spearhead a renewed campaign.

Greg said: "A landfill site of this size and in this location would be an absolute disaster for so many reasons, and of course all the waste disposal methods, landfill and the dangerous methane gases it creates has the very worst impact on climate change.

"I want to head this off at the pass and ensure that such a proposal never comes to fruition in Bexhill, be it in five years time or twenty years time.

"Thankfully for the town the BALI committee has been quietly working very hard indeed over this period but we cannot now leave this fight all to them.

"We need to back BALI with a strong and cross-party campaign, a broad alliance of groups. Communities and individuals need to come together right across the town."

John Heasman, Vice Chair of Bexhill Labour Party and a committee member of the preservation society for nearby Highwoods Nature Reserve, said: "I am appalled that this site should even be considered for landfill with non-inert waste.
"Opening this site would cause considerable extra vehicle movements, including heavy lorries, that would be stressful to local residents and impact negatively on the well being of local communities.

"The dumping of non-inert waste so close to Highwoods would also have a catastrophic effect on the ecology of a valuable recreational area which is enjoyed by many Bexhill residents.

"I give my full support to BALI on this issue."

The public meeting will be chaired by Greg Barker at **Bexhill High School, Gunters Lane, Bexhill on Friday, November 6 at 7pm. [**Note that this venue is a change from that originally published]

Greg said: ""I hope as many people as possible will come. It would be extremely helpful if we had an idea of how many to expect, as it is possible we may need a bigger venue, so I would be very grateful if people could either register their intention to come on my website or call my office on 01424 736861."

For information or to register interest, visit www.gregorybarker.com

See the original article on the Bexhill Observer website

Update on Planning, Transport & Other Issues at Ashdown Brickworks

2009-09-30T22:31:00.000+01:00

The Need for Landfill All landfill sites in East Sussex are now full with the exception of Pebsham, which has been granted a four year extension to infill its Northern Quadrant. While there has been a significant decline in waste arisings through recycling, over 60% of East Sussex waste is still disposed to land.
ESCC Waste & Mineral Development Framework Next month (October), East Sussex County Council (ESCC) will publish its 'Preferred Strategy' for Waste Disposal in the county. This is the most crucial stage in its longrunning Waste and Mineral Development Framework (WMDF) process which will decide how waste is handled during the period until 2026.This process will probably complete in 2011 and, if passed by Council, will replace the current Waste Local Plan (WLP) that identifies Ashdown as the only site for landfill in East Sussex (although this plan is no longer 'saved').
Despite the WMDF recognizing that the landfilling of waste is the least acceptable method of its disposal, and despite the framework process supposedly involving a fresh selection of transfer and disposal sites, it is 99% certain that Ashdown will be identified as a 'Strategic Location' for the landfilling of waste in the Preferred Strategy. This has been confirmed directly to BALI (orally) by Tony Cook, Head of ESCC's Waste Team and is largely due to its current position in the WLP.
While there is a further stage in the WMDF of 'Site Selection' it is inconceivable that, if Ashdown is identified as a Strategic Location for landfill in the Preferred Strategy, it will not be selected for landfill in the final plan.
This is an extremely dangerous situation for BALI and Bexhill. As a result BALI has re-engaged its planning lawyers to make submissions on its behalf in the consultation that will follow the publication of the Preferred Strategy. We will argue that 'circumstances have changed' since the Waste Local Plan that make Ashdown no longer suitable for landfill, also that it is not deliverable in the time-frame required. For these and other (environmental etc.) reasons, an appointment of Ashdown as a landfill site would be 'unsound'. (For further information on BALI's case please see the further document 'Update on BALI's Activities to Fight the Proposed Landfill.)
The Newhaven Incinerator is currently being constructed with a large capacity sufficient to handle most of the county's residual waste. It would be a great relief to BALI and the people of Bexhill if, as local Councillor Brian Gadd argues, this incinerator could handle our entire waste disposal. However, BALI has studied this issue closely and concluded this is unlikely to be possible in the medium term. Moreover, such a view ignores the problems of waste that cannot be incinerated, the unrecovered metals and the bottom ash produced by incineration which may amount to 25-30% of the waste burnt. The facts on this issue will likely become clear in October when ESCC publishes its Preferred Strategy.
London Waste. There is also the question of 1.8 million tonnes of London Waste required to be accepted and disposed of to land by ESCC during the period until 2026 under the South East Plan, finally passed by government earlier this year. However, there are High Court challenges to the plan and the Conservative Party, if elected at the next General Election, may abolish it. Also the Mayor of London has announced in his latest environmental proposals ('Leading to a Greener London') that he wishes to end the practice of exporting waste to the South East. He notes, however, that this 'cannot be done overnight' and will inevitably involve a transition period.
BALI's view is that it is still probable that East Sussex will be required to receive substantial quantities of London waste. Surprisingly, however, Stephen Hardy of Ibstock Brick Ltd., the owners of the Ashdown site has told BALI that the company will not be prepared to receive London Waste at Ashdown!
The role of Ibstock. BALI continues to hold regular meetings with Ibstock and there is no change in their intention to eventually landfill the site on which basis, earlier this year, they unsuccessfully fought in the High Court Rother District Council’s decision to grant itself outline planning permission to extend Bexhill Cemetery into an adjoining field. They also have refused BALI's request to restrict waste landfilled at the site to inert waste as opposed to organic, putrescible waste.
Ibstock has been hard-hit by the decline in construction during the recession and have closed 5 plants in the past year. Ashdown has often been working on short-time. This is likely to bring forward their plans to landfill the site and they have admitted that discussions on this issue are now taking place at senior level.
The decline in brick-making works two ways however: the 'holes' are not getting bigger and to 'open them up' may be costly beyond Ibstock's means at the present time. (However any Waste Contractor to whom Ibstock grants 'landfill rights' at Ashdown might well contribute).
The Ashdown Site It is essential to understand that there are two ‘holes’ at the Ashdown site and the plan is to empty one and start landfilling it while continuing to extract clay from the other. (There are probably 30 years of clay extraction left at the site.) To do this Ibstock need to stockpile clay on fairly adjacent land and BALI believes they may be in the process of acquiring land for this purpose, perhaps in the '4 fields' to the east of the quarry owned by Mayo Land Ltd.
Transport Links The enormous problem remains of transport access to the site, which currently is insufficient to enable substantial landfill usage. If the Link Road goes ahead, this will only partly resolve the problem. Two further roads are required:
1. A spur road off the Link Road to the A269. This road, entitled the Country Avenue appears in the RDC Local Plan and in ESCC Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 (as a longer-term scheme) but it does not go as far as the A269.
2. A purpose- built road from the A269 to the Ashdown Site or the continuation of the Country Avenue across the A269 to the site. (This latter suggestion appears in the recent RDC Local Development Framework – Core Strategy.)
That eventually such roads could be achieved is not doubted, but whether they can be achieved in the time-frame required for Ashdown to be a viable landfill site in the medium term is open to question. However planners tend often to ignore practical realities in favour of paper solutions to the problems they have to deal with.

Nick Hollington

Chairman, BALI

September 2009

The Landfill Threat Becomes Real

2009-09-30T21:32:00.000+01:00

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and Brighton and Hove City Council have finally confirmed their plan to use Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road, Bexhill for a massive landfill of residual waste starting as early as 2012.

Ashdown the 'Preferred Option'

In their recently published Preferred Strategy for the handling of waste in the County until 2026, ESCC have designated the Ashdown Site as their "Preferred Option" for the landfilling of waste and hope to start a Planning Application next year to complete by the end of 2011. The Strategy was approved by ESCC Cabinet last Wednesday.

The Next Public Consultation

The Strategy does list some possible alternative sites however, and there will be a period of Public Consultation from 21st October to 2nd December this year before Ashdown is definitively selected. Rother District Council, BALI (Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration) and other local organizations will be making submissions in this consultation and the public will also be invited to give their views.

Despite greater recycling, 60% of the area's approximate 2 million tonnes of waste is still disposed to landfill. Although the Incinerator being built at Newhaven (estimated to start 2012) will be able to burn most of our domestic waste and recover energy from it, landfill will still be needed for other types of waste (e.g. construction and demolition waste) and the bottom ash left after incineration, which can be as much as 25% of the waste burnt. About 4.5 million tonnes of landfill will be needed up to 2026. Most of that is planned for Ashdown as all other landfill sites are closed or (Pebsham) in the process of closure.

BALI is meeting with our local MP, Councillors, environmental groups and other stakeholders to try to co-ordinate a campaign to oppose what they see as a pernicious proposal that would have a devastating effect on the whole town of Bexhill, setting back the Council's plan for its regeneration and likely to lower house prices throughout the town.

Effects on the Community

The community of West Bexhill would be particularly affected if the plan goes through, with an estimated four thousand residents living within a mile of the site. Potential effects of the landfill would include visual impact, odours, pests, noise, dust and litter as well as concerns about public health. Significant daily HGV waste-truck movements would affect a wider area, depending on the routes chosen, but potentially having similar effects and causing traffic congestion.

Several local amenities and their users would be egregiously affected, most importantly the flagship new Bexhill High School being constructed for 1800 young people less than half-a-mile away. Users of the Bexhill Cemetery only 250 metres away (less if the cemetery is extended as planned) would overlook the dump, as would the golfers of Highwoods Golf Club. Arguably worst affected of all would be the much-frequented Highwoods nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, whose wildlife would be decimated: birds simply would not nest.

BALI's latest action

In April this year, in anticipation of this decision, BALI re-engaged its prominent legal planning consultant to make a strong case that the choice of Ashdown for landfill is entirely unsound. This case is now ready to submit. Such legal work is, of course, costly and has only proved possible through the generous donations of its supporters and the hard work of its fundraising team.

BALI's case

BALI's case is twofold. Firstly it argues that the effects of a landfill in this location are simply too great. According to Government planning policy, the County Council must clearly demonstrate, in allocating any land for such purposes, that "there is no unacceptable impact on the environment and on communities". BALI will seek to prove that, given the proximity of so many homes and local amenities and so much ancient woodland with unique flora and fauna, the impact will be totally unacceptable.

It will also argue that the choice of Ashdown as the County's landfill site is, in planning terms, "unsafe", in that it cannot be "delivered" (made ready) in the time-frame required by the County Council. The Council needs landfill in the short term to meet an immediate and increasing shortfall in capacity. It is unlikely, however, that Ashdown could be able to receive substantial quantities of waste for some years.

When Ashdown was originally considered as a landfill site it was well-established that there would first need to be created a whole new transport infrastructure as the present access roads (Pear Tree Lane and Turkey Road) are clearly unsuitable. This would consist of the Link Road, a so-called "Country Avenue" spurring off it to the A269, and a purpose-built access road from the A269 to the site. The Link Road, however, if constructed at all, will not be ready until 2012 at the latest and the other roads are at present not even on the drawing board.

It is also not clear that the Ashdown quarries, owned by Ibstock Brick Ltd., have the potential capacity in the short term to receive substantial waste. There are two quarries where they plan to deposit waste in one while continuing to extract clay from the other. However the hole they plan to use for waste is by no means empty and they would need to stockpile clay on nearby land.

Rother District Council

BALI is hoping that Rother District Council will also make a strong case against the proposed landfill, using their substantial planning and legal resources and expertise. While they do not make the final decision, their views as a key stakeholder could be very influential, if not decisive.

Greg Barker MP

BALI has already held an urgent meeting with local MP Gregory Barker, who has always been firmly opposed to a landfill at Ashdown and, indeed, was instrumental in forming BALI some years ago. He has assured BALI of his firm support. A campaign will shortly be launched asking local residents and Councillors of all parties to unite against the move, culminating in a Public Meeting which Mr. Barker has agreed to Chair [To be held on Friday 7th November 2009 at 7.00 pm, venue Bexhill High School, Gunters Lane, Bexhill - please come along].

Defeat This Monstrous Plan

BALI genuinely believes that the proposal can still be defeated. "The news is extremely serious and a wake-up call to the people of Bexhill, some of whom have doubted that the threat of a landfill was real", says Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI. "It's staring us in the face now, but if we can all get together to fight this monstrous plan we can defeat it. But we must act NOW!"

It is hoped that, if the landfill proposal is defeated, work can begin on a plan for eventually restoring the quarries for community use in cooperation with Ibstock. BALI wants them to form part of a "nature reserve" incorporating the Highwoods and surrounding farmland. In this respect, earlier this year BALI made a formal proposal to Rother District Council’s Local Development Framework of a "West Bexhill Countryside Park" similar to that now being created in the Pebsham area. This proposal has now been formally registered.

But first the landfill proposal must be defeated and BALI is calling upon all local residents to write to their local Councillors expressing their views and asking them what they are doing to oppose the plan.

BALI Chairman Newsletter - September 2009

2009-09-15T21:42:00.000+01:00

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has been working since 2006 on its Waste and Minerals Development Framework (WMDF) which will decide how waste is handled in the County until 2026, replacing the Waste Local Plan. BALI has made submissions in the consultations at each stage of the process, this work having been carried out by the Chairman in order to conserve BALI's funds;
BALI keeps in close touch with the Waste team at ESCC and in March this year learnt that Ashdown was likely be identified as a 'Strategic Location' for landfill in the Council's Preferred Strategy for Waste, as part of the WMDF. Such a move by ESCC was considered beyond the scope of BALI members to respond to and it decided to re-engage its planning lawyers, DMH Stallard, to:
1. Review our case, looking at all the past documents, correspondence and other data concerning Ashdown, particularly the huge number of documents involved in preparing the Waste Local Plan and the case against an Ashdown landfill by our previous consultant at the Public Inquiry,
2. Prepare a Strategy for the Objections to Landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. (See Appendix 1).This report was given to BALI in June and our Consultant (Geoff Smith) came to Bexhill to discuss it with us and advise us as to the next steps to take,
The main threads of BALI's argument as to why the identification of Ashdown as a landfill site 'this time round' is unsound are that:
1. 'Circumstances have changed' since the Waste Local Plan was adopted in February 2006, notably in national and EU policy regarding landfill, also locally in the increased adverse effect on local amenities, particularly the development of the new Bexhill High School less than half a mile away.
2. 'An Ashdown landfill could not be delivered in the time-frame required'. Landfill in East Sussex is required in the short and medium term since all landfill sites have already or are shortly closing.(In the longer term less and less landfill will be required.) Ashdown is unlikely to be deliverable for landfill even in the medium term for many reasons. In particular, suitable transport access is unlikely to be available, depending as it does on 3 roads, none of which are yet built and 2 of which are not yet even at the planning stage,
3. Because Ashdown will not be deliverable in the time-frame required, our Consultant will insist that other sites particularly those suggested for landfill at early stages of the Waste Local Plan, be brought (back) into consideration. We will insist that ESCC hold an objective, transparent, site-selection process,
Of course, all other arguments developed by BALI over the years: environmental, effect on local residents, on local amenities - and particularly on the treasured Highwoods - will continue to play a part in our case.
Geoff Smith recommended in his report that we instruct him to proceed to further steps as follows and we have instructed him accordingly:
1. To prepare an 'evidence base' largely focusing on the change of circumstances since the Waste Local Plan Inquiry,
2. To make submissions on the Preferred Strategy of the WMDF when published for consultation in October,
3. This latter task represents our best chance of getting out of the new Waste Framework, and if successful, we can all relax. If we do not succeed in this, Ashdown will almost certainly be included in the WMDF and there will likely be a Planning Application to use Ashdown for landfill in the not-so-distant (2012?) future.
The cost of this legal work has been, of course, substantial. However, we have every confidence in our Consultant, Geoff Smith, who was the man who succeeded in removing the proposed Mountfield Incinerator from the Waste Local Plan. Thanks to our hard-working fundraising team and the generosity of our supporters, we have built up a substantial war-chest of funds. However the chest is not bottomless and we may need to raise further funds if we do not succeed in our present attempt to remove Ashdown Brickworks from the WMDF.
We are not actively fundraising or publicising our cause at the present time. We are convinced that when the WMDF Preferred Strategy is published in October the threat of a new landfill in Bexhill will become clear. At this point we will raise a high-profile publicity campaign and resume our fundraising on the back of it.
BALI continues to meet with Ibstock on a regular basis, the latest meeting taking place on 30th June 2009. The meetings are amicable and informative and attended by senior Ibstock staff, including the Company Secretary Stephen Hardy. Various BALI members attend. We also arrange visits to the site for our members accompanied by the friendly site Manager Steve Chapman. Ibstock also have made and are making submissions to the WMDF and we have asked them to let us have sight of them.
Earlier this year, BALI made various representations in respect of the Ashdown area to Rother District Council's Local Development Framework - Core Strategy in the 'Consultation on Strategic Directions'.
1. We particularly objected to the reference to an extension of the 'Country
  Avenue' from the Link Road across the A269 to 'provide the infrastructure essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site'. This statement, we argued, prejudices the results of the County's WMDF nor is such an extension included in any ESCC Transport plan.
2. We furthermore proposed the creation of a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods, the Ashdown Quarries and the surrounding farmland, analogous and complementary to the Pebsham Countryside Park being created in East Bexhill.
All BALI's objections and proposals have been registered by RDC and appear on their LDF website.
We have developed a website at www.nolandfillatbexhill.org
BALI continues to receive heartening support from the local public and from various local groups e.g. the Highwoods Preservation Society and the Rother Environmental Group. Also from local amenities that would be seriously affected by a landfill, for example Highwoods Golf Club, which hosts our meetings and provides copying facilities, etc.
BALI enjoys and much appreciates the unwavering support of our MP Greg Barker, whom we consult regularly. We understand he is planning, at a suitable moment, to use his regular local newspaper column to support our campaign.
BALI continues to seek further political support, which our Consultant advises should accompany any legal action if we are to achieve success. We particularly need support from our County and District Councillors which is lacking at the present time. (We have sadly lost firm supporters such as Graham Gubby, Ron Dyason and Stuart Earl). At the present time most Councillors, with significant exceptions (e.g. Cllr Martyn Forster), seem to doubt there is any longer a real threat of a new landfill in Bexhill. We believe that the publication of the Council's Preferred Strategy for Waste in October will show all too clearly the current threat and BALI will then make a fresh effort to enlist more Councillor support for our cause. It goes without saying that BALI is an apolitical organization with members and supporters from all political parties and we welcome support from whatever quarter.
BALI plans to shortly hold meetings with Mathew Lock, Lead Member, Transport and Environment, East Sussex County Council and Rupert Chubb, the Director of T&E. These have both made the statement that 'burying waste in the ground is no longer an option' and we seek to understand what this means and why it would not apply to Ashdown Brickworks. They will also have the latest information on the capacity of the Newhaven Incinerator and the proposed new roads.
BALI also seeks help and support to make and suggest realistic plans to alternatively restore the Ashdown Quarry site once excavated. We have no expertise in this matter and urgently seek such. As stated, we have suggested to RDC that it form part of a West Bexhill Countryside Park incorporating the Highwoods and surrounding farmland, but we have no idea how to develop this proposal further. It is naive to suggest to Ibstock, owned by a huge American conglomerate, that their quarries simply become a 'nature reserve'. They view them quite properly as a valuable company asset and seek to protect their commercial position. For whatever is suggested a commercial case must be made.
There is also a difficult question to face. We talk of 'landfill' as 'bad', but the Ashdown holes will have to at least part filled with something in order to restore them. As regards filling them with water we are told the site is too small for a reservoir, nor could they become a leisure lake for boating etc. unless at least half-filled with land.
BALI continues to follow developments in national policy on waste, waste planning in other counties and planning applications for landfill sites elsewhere, sometimes liaising with their protest groups. There has been a particularly high number of applications in West Sussex and a high-profile political campaign by their MPs and Councillors against such applications. There is a particular relevant planning application to BALI, currently out for consultation, at Laybrook, near Thakeham. This is an Ibstock Quarry, like Ashdown, and we are following developments there closely.

Nick Hollington
BALI Chairman
September 2009

BALI Campaign Update September 2009

2009-09-01T22:12:00.000+01:00

It has become crystal clear from evidence we cannot divulge that East Sussex County Council (ESCC) are currently and actively considering Ibstock's Ashdown quarries as a landfill site despite the dire consequences this will entail for our local residents and our beloved Highwoods.

All will be revealed in October, when ESCC will publish its 'Preferred Strategy' for waste as part of its "Waste and Minerals Development Framework" (WMDF). The Ashdown quarries will almost certainly be selected as a "Strategic Location" for the landfilling of East Sussex waste and the waste due to come from London under the South East Plan.

During the recent elections, Cllr. Gadd called the rumours of a landfill at Ashdown 'rubbish' and claimed that the incinerator being built at Newhaven will be able to handle all our (and London's) waste. BALI does not believe this for many reasons. Just one example is that certain types of waste (e.g. metals) cannot be incinerated and the bottom ash (or 'fly ash') remaining after incineration can amount to 25-30% of the waste burnt. All this has to be landfilled unless other means of disposal are found.

We are not standing idly by and will fight any proposals to landfill waste at Ashdown all the way. In anticipation of 'bad news' in October, we have reengaged our lawyers (DHM Stallard) to digest all the previous (voluminous) material regarding Ashdown and to recommend a plan of action. They have now done this and will proceed to make a case in response to the forthcoming proposals arguing that the site should be excluded from the WMDF for a whole host of reasons - unfortunately too detailed to go into here.

All this legal action is necessary, but expensive, and we are grateful for the generous donations made by BALI supporters hitherto. Following the last Highwoods news letter we had an anonymous gift of £200 for which we would like to thank the donor. If you would be willing to donate, would like more information about BALI or would like to help in any way, please phone me on 01424 843046.

Nick Hollington
Chairman B.A.L.I (Bexhill Against Landfill and Incineration)

PS: One thing we'd like to develop is a positive plan for the Ashdown quarry for the future which excludes the landfilling of organic waste. We have suggested to Rother District Council as part of their Local Development Framework that they consider a "West Bexhill Country Park" including the quarries, the Highwoods and the lovely adjoining countryside. However we don't have the expertise to practically develop this project. Can you help - or do you know anyone who can?

Newhaven Incinerator Go Ahead - can it handle all our waste?

2009-07-31T22:52:00.000+01:00

What's the latest news?

The incinerator is now being constructed. Last year ESCC gave Veolia, who have a 25 year waste management contract with the council, planning permission approval to develop an 'Energy Recovery Facility' (they don't call it an incinerator!) at North Quay, but the local pressure group, DOVE, held up commencement of the works through various legal challenges, the last of which failed last November. However, DOVE continued to oppose the issue of a Pollution Prevention and Control Permit (PPE) by the Environment Agency, but this was finally issued on 13th March 2009.

Is the incinerator important?

It is crucial. Currently, most East Sussex waste still ends up in landfill, but there are only two sites left in East Sussex and these are to close shortly. They are Beddingham (Viridor), due to close this year, and Pebsham (BIFFA), mostly due to close this year, though landfilling of the northern infill will continue till 2013. Once these sites close, without the incinerator there would be no significant waste disposal facility in East Sussex. If the incinerator had been refused planning permission it is certain there would have been greater pressure to create a landfill site at Ashdown.

Technical Information: Extract from the ESCC Planning Committee notes

4.2 The proposed ERF will be a twin stream plant, with a theoretical maximum throughput of 242,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). It has been designed to operate at 85% of this capacity to allow for essential maintenance requirements, so the plant's actual operating capacity is estimated to be 210,000 tpa or 28 tonnes per hour (tph).

4.3 The ERF plant itself will operate continuously, except for maintenance or emergencies, but deliveries will only take place from 0700 - 1730 on Mondays to Fridays and 0800 - 1500 on Saturdays; occasional deliveries will take place outside these hours. Planned maintenance will take place twice annually, once for one week and once for two weeks, which would allow one stream to continue operations to treat directly delivered waste only.

4.4 With a throughput of 210,000 tonnes of waste treated annually, the process will be likely to generate 52,900 tpa of bottom ash from the combustion process, and 8,400 tpa of recovered ferrous metals. This represents 25% of the waste input by tonnage and 10% by volume. The applicant states that options for processing bottom ash for use as an aggregate are under consideration.

Also heat energy in the form of steam will be collected and used to generate 16.5 megawatts of electricity enough to provide for 25,000 homes.

Can it handle all our waste?

The maximum amount of waste the incinerator could handle is 245,000 tonnes per annum. East Sussex waste currently amounts to 400,000tpa, however it is estimated that with increased recycling, this might be reduced to 250,000tpa by 2012. So, yes, it just might, but the recycling target might be over optimistic. Secondly, there the matter of 'bottom ash' or 'fly ash' from the scrubbers, and the recovered metals. They will need to be found a home.

What is certain is that it couldn't handle London waste as well!

Under the South East Plan, East Sussex is due to take 1.6 million tonnes of London waste over the period till 2026. It is impossible that the incinerator could handle this as well as our own waste.

Is incineration a safe way of disposing of waste?

There is a lot of disagreement on this issue, but the main 'experts' say that modern technology makes incineration far safer than previously, with tight control emissions. According to the Environment Agency, the new permit (PPC) sets strict conditions governing the operation of the incinerator, measuring any pollution to ensure that public health and the environment are protected.

BALI - Still in Business?

2009-03-20T21:04:00.000Z

Friends of B.A.L.I.

Perhaps you are asking – is B.A.L.I. still in business – if so what are they doing? Or have they run off with our money and all our accrued interest!? Let's answer the easy questions first.

No, we have not run off with your precious savings; your money is still safe and sound in the Yorkshire Building Society - and perhaps we should gloss over the subject of the huge sums of interest you are earning from your investments! However, B.A.L.I. would like to thank all of you who have stayed with us and given so generously over the years because you feel our town is worth fighting for and you refuse to accept that it could be blighted by a landfill site for the next 30 years.

So what have we been doing? Our fund raising efforts continue. To date we have raised £23,000 for the War Chest; this money is 'ring fenced' and will only be used to fight any planning application. The 'every day' fund stands at £8,000, and is augmented by the weekly bonus ball lottery; (there are still a few 'lucky numbers' available! Please phone 845688 if you would like to join in the fun).

Our Solicitors (Stallards) continue to keep B.A.L.I. informed of any developments re. landfill issues, on which we act if necessary.

B.A.L.I. meets every 6 months with the Manager and Company Secretary of Ibstocks. We hope these frank discussions keep us in the picture regarding changes of use of the brick works site.

We are members of the Rother Environmental Group who meet monthly; we also take a keen interest in the Highwood Preservation Society. Our website is out of date. From now on it will be up dated monthly with new and relevant information.

Hope to see some of you through the spring and summer months – we accept that trying to raise funds in this period of recession is going to prove very difficult. However, let's keep up the good fight.

Mike Rosner (B.A.L.I.)

Letter published in the Bexhill Observer March 20th 2009

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (2)

2009-03-01T22:27:00.000Z

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (continued)

Recently, we had good news that the Bexhill Cemetery is to be extended, despite Ibstock's objections and appeals, into the 'four fields' that were claimed to be needed by Ibstock for stockpiling of clay in the event of a landfill. But, reading Ibstock's barrister's case, as BALI was privileged to do, you realise how strongly Ibstock still want to keep an option to landfill their Ashdown site. So they might appeal, or buy other fields, or cope with excess clay in some other ways, given they have strong intention to use Ashdown one day for landfill. I don't think for one minute that they have got together and said 'Well that's it then, we won't have a landfill at Ashdown'. It's far too important to them.

An then, almost out of the blue, reading Rother District's latest Local Development Framework document, I came across a section which, in line with the WLP's vision for the Ashdown site, proposed a 'country avenue' from the Link Road, across the A269 to 'provide the infrastructure essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site'. Clearly, Rother District Council hasn't forgotten about a landfill at Ashdown!

Neither have East Sussex County Council, but they are being more objective in their consideration of future waste disposal in the county than previously. They are looking in the Waste and Mineral Development Framework to reduce landfill as much as possible and they will set about a 'fresh' selection of sites, even including sites that were previously rejected in the Waste Local Plan. But Ashdown will certainly be in the frame; that is clear, especially if the South East Plan is approved(as I believe it will) requiring East Sussex to accept for disposal 1.6 million tonnes of London waste over the period till 2026. The new Newhaven Incinerator will certainly not be able to cope with that as well as East Sussex waste.

I have been working hard these past six months making representations on behalf of BALI to all these plans and frameworks and liaising constantly with all the relevant bodies and key players. We have also been meeting with Ibstock in a good atmosphere, believing that engagement with them does not represent any endorsement of their plans. We must be careful however, that we are not in any sense 'soft-soaped'.

That there is still no 'big news'- of a planning application for instance - lulls most Bexhillians understandably into a false sense of security regarding the Ashdown site. BALI has however, tried not to do much publicity for our cause in the past six months as it were to wake people up. We don't believe it's our role to 'hype up' our case when there is no firm news. It could be counter productive.

However, I believe that in the next six months, something 'big' will break and the media will take it up, quite likely in a major way. The South East Plan will likely be approved and there will be focused attention in the media on where the projected London waste will go. The ESCC Waste and Minerals Development Framework will reach the stage of 'Strategic Site Allocation' and possibly 'site selection', bringing landfill at the Ashdown site up for attention in the same way as previously did the Waste Local Plan. Against this background, Ibstock, faced with declining orders for bricks, might get an offer from a waste contractor that it simply cannot refuse.

When we get wind of something important happening, or certainly at the next stage of the WMDF, we will re-engage our legal consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard to represent us, utilising the funds my colleagues have raised and we have safeguarded for the important fight I am convinced still lies ahead to prevent the devastation that would be caused to the whole of Bexhill by a new landfill in the Ashdown quarries.

To successfully fight a landfill, we will need planning and environmental experts, and, of course, lawyers. These cost money. Without the funds raised by Mike Rosner and his team we couldn't afford to hire them and therefore would have no chance of winning. Even so, we will have a long hard fight on our hands and probably more funds - and certainly more volunteers - will be needed. But this report should end with a big thank you to all those who have raised funds and those who have donated money to our cause, without which we wouldn't be able to move forward in our campaign at all.

Nick Hollington

Chairman BALI

March 2009

BALI Chairman Newsletter - March 2009 (1)

2009-03-01T22:26:00.000Z

For me, these past six months as Chairman of BALI have been busy, yet the ordinary Bexhillian could be forgiven for thinking that not much has happened regarding the proposed landfill at Ibstock's Ashdown Brickworks. This is implied because nothing much has been "in the news".
One should remember at these times, and I am always conscious of, the facts that simply don't go away. These are as follows:

the Ashdown quarries are large holes in the ground; there are very few of those in East Sussex. They are of huge commercial value.
The tendency has been, and still largely is, to use such holes for the landfilling of waste. (Those not so used are Eden-project type exceptions, often because they are 'wrong' for such uses, being chalk pits and / or with risk to ground water.
Ibstock is a company which has tended to use its excavated quarries mostly for landfill. It's probably the best and easiest way to bring profit to their shareholders.
Landfill in East Sussex is fast running out, with its only two sites left, Beddingham and Pebsham, which are shortly to close.
Recycling locally has been greatly increased but 60% of East Sussex waste is still disposed of by landfill.
The incinerator at Newhaven will probably not be able to cope with all of East Sussex's waste and certainly not if London waste is sent here as is envisaged in the South East Plan.
(Probably most importantly) The Ashdown site has been allocated for the landfilling of waste in the ESCC Waste Local Plan. It is the only such site allocated for landfill in East Sussex.

Ashdown Brickworks site pitcured left:
top) looking west and
below) looking east.

Since the ESCC Waste Local Plan allocated Ashdown for landfill in a sense we have been lucky. Firstly, that the proposal to use Ashdown for landfill hit the time of the 'green revolution' where landfill started to be and is increasingly regarded as the least acceptable way of disposing of waste, largely because of its methane emissions. So there has been a great emphasis both on recycling, which has increased greatly, and on incineration and other means of waste disposal.

Secondly, almost as soon as the Waste Local Plan was passed in February 2006 it became outmoded and work began on a new 'Waste and Minerals Development Framework' for East Sussex, allowing a renewed consideration of the disposal of waste in the county and a fresh selection of suitable sites - though not entirely fresh, as I have recently found out. This process has ground on for several years now and is still incomplete.
Finally, the Link Road has taken much more time than expected to be approved and is, even as I write, still not 100% certain to be built. The biggest disadvantage of the Ashdown Site, as recognised by the Waste Local Plan Inspector, was/ is the transport access and there have not been the developments in the transport infrastructure that were envisaged as necessary at the time of the Waste Local Plan.
But things being slow, or us being so far lucky, does not mean that the prospect of an Ashdown landfill has receded one iota and many times over the past six months I have been reminded that a landfill at Ashdown is still very much in the minds of those who have the power to effect it.

Rother's Local Development Framework

2009-02-02T22:40:00.000Z

Rother's Local Development Framework (LDF) proposes a "country avenue" leading to an Ashdown Landfill

Background

In November 2008, Rother District Council published its 'Consultation on Strategy Directions' document, the latest stage in the preparation of new 'Core Strategy' that will guide future development and change in Rother District until 2026.

This is part of the Local Development Framework, a series of documents representing a new planning system throughout England and Wales which is designed to involve local communities in providing a policy framework for planning decisions. The Statement of Community Involvement was produced after consultation in 2006 to provide protocols for public involvement in the process and last year there was a consultation called 'Issues and Options' with a document asking very broad questions to stimulate public debate about how the district should evolve and grow. BALI participated in both these consultations.

Is it important?

The LDF is very important and will replace the Rother District Local PLan. However, it should be remembered that waste disposal is not a subject for local (district) Councils as a county matter. This will be covered in the ESCC Waste and Minerals Development Framework (WMDF) which will replace the ESCC Waste Local Plan (which first included the proposal for a landfill site at Ashdown).

The current stage

The current stage of the LDF is the most important as it deals with the Core Strategy, the key planning document which:

"...will set the overall vision and general distribution of development for the district....identify broad locations for housing and other development needs, including for employment, shopping and community facilities."

BALI made detailed submissions to the 'Consultations on Strategy Directions' in January 2009, supporting much of the general proposal for protection of the environment in the district. It however, vigorously opposed its vision for North and West Bexhill in the section 6.33 - 6.38 (on page 42) of the document, which proposed an extension of a 'Country Avenue' from the Link Road up to and across the A269 Ninfield Road*, lined with developments and "providing the transport infrastructure regarded as essential to the planned landfill use of the Ibstock site"

Our arguments were manifold and you can read an extract of them. The most important were that to propose a road leading to the Ibstock site was premature and beyond RDC's remit as neither transport nor waste are district matters and that the forthcoming ESCC WMDF had not yet decided on waste disposal sites.

*in fact, in 6.38 they envisage the Country Avenue carrying on right down to the A259!

Landfill in West Sussex: Landmark decision - Ibstock seeks planning permission for a landfill at Laybrook

2009-02-01T22:38:00.000Z

West Sussex, like East Sussex is, in principle, against accepting London waste or creating further landfill sites, even though its landfill sites are fast running out of space. It too is preparing a Waste and Mineral Development Framework (WMDF). They too are under pressure to create further landfill sites and, unlike East Sussex, have a considerable amount of void-space (holes in the ground). Their WMDF is at a further stage than East Sussex' and it should be noted that sites previously rejected have been brought back into consideration.

Apart from the comparison it could be that West Sussex may provide part of the solution for East Sussex waste and/ or vice versa. Although there are clearly some transport restraints, waste disposal often takes place out of county and some suspect there may be working understandings between the two counties.

In 2007 West Sussex County Council (WSCC) were considering no less than six possible sites for their WMDF landfill. These were then reduced to three, all in Horsham district, as follows:

Brockhurst Wood extension: Approved March 2008
Langhurstwood quarry: Still under consideration
Laybrook Brickworks(Ibstock): Planning Application still under consideration

In addition to this, Veolia applied in 2007-08 for a landfill at Rock Common Quarry near Storrington, proposing it to be the largest in the South East. There was much opposition from local residents and the local action group Chanctonbury Landfill Action Group (CLAG). The Environment Agency opposed the application as representing 'a significant threat to groundwater quality'. The local MP, Nick Herbert, Shadow Secretary for the Environment was a leading light in the campaign against the application even addressing the WSCC Planning Committee. In any case WSCC officers recommended refusal of the application as 'not in the long-term public interest' and it was duly refused in January 2009.

Laybrook Brickworks (Thakeham)

Cory Environmental, the waste contractor, submitted its planning application on 23rd January 2009 after consulting (mainly 'exhibitions') with the local residents and the local action group: Thakeham Village Action (TVA). This has now been validated by WSCC and an eight week public consultation is now taking place.

What is already apparent is that Nick Herbert MP has again taken up the cudgel to support the local residents. In fact he is calling for an end to all landfill of non-inert waste. let's hope our local MP will be of similarly heroic stature if it ever comes to an application for landfill at Ashdown!

We could well regard Laybrook as a test case for Ashdown, a similar quarry. TVA are in a similar situation to BALI and we should make contact with them.

Ibstock's Appeal Against Cemetery Extension Dismissed

2009-01-30T22:14:00.000Z

Background

In February 2007, Rother District Council (RDC) granted itself planning permission, against objections by Ibstock, to extend Bexhill Cemetery into one of 'four fields' owned by Mayo Land Company adjacent to Ashdown Brickworks. These fields were represented by Ibstock in the ESCC Waste Local Plan inquiry as crucial to the early development of a landfill in the quarries allowing them to stockpile clay thereon. This possibility was noted by the Inspector in his report but the land was not 'allocated' or 'safeguarded' in the plan itself.

In May 2007, Ibstocks lawyers sought permission in the High Court to apply for judicial review of RDC's decision on 9 grounds, being 'concerned that the planning permission given will affect the proposed landfilling of the quarry'. In August 2007, however, the Court refused permission for judicial review, rejecting all of Ibstock's grounds. However, Ibstock appealed the decision and permission for judicial review was granted though on one ground only: that RDC had failed to sufficiently consider noise abatement and screening regarding those visiting the cemetery.

Court Decision 18th January 2009

Mr Justice Dean dismissed Ibstock's application on the grounds that the issues of noise and screening from any landfill site were not required to be addressed at the stage and that 'the case is fact-specific and raises no principle or legal issue'. RDC was awarded £21,472 to cover its legal costs.

What next?

RDC will almost certainly compulsorily purchase the land it requires for the cemetery extension
There could be a further appeal; Mr Justice Dean noted that 'it would be for the civil Appeals Office to decide whether they wish to hear any appeal'. BALI is not aware if Ibstock intend to appeal.
There is almost certainly to be opposition to the cemetery plans at the next planning stage
Ibstock may consider stockpiling clay on the other fields or elsewhere, offering to purchase any land not owned by them.

Is the stock-piling of clay crucial to whether or not there will be a landfill at Ashdown?

If a landfill is required at any early date, it probably is, Ibstock emptying one of its quarries (it has two) to landfill it while still extracting clay from the other. In the longer term there would be less need.

BALI's view

The High Court decision allowing RDC to extend the cemetery makes it more difficult for Ibstock to use the Ashdown quarries for the landfilling of waste, but certainly not impossible.

Note: Throughout the Court hearings, BALI was registered as an interested party, receiving all the paperwork and decisions made.

The ESCC Waste and Mineral Development Framework (WMDF)will soon reach a crucial stage

2009-01-01T22:50:00.000Z

The Background

The 'WMDF' is the most important document for BALI. In February 2006, the ESCC Waste Local Plan (WLP) got us into this mess by 'designating Ashdown as the only suitable site for landfill in East Sussex'. The WMDF might well get us out of it as it will replace the WLP and is considering the handling of waste in East Sussex entirely anew and does not need to follow the WLP.

BALI has been in on the WMDF consultations since the beginning, first in 2007 with the 'Sustainability Appraisal: Scoping Report' which posed broad questions to stimulate debate such as whether waste should be handled in small local (e.g. district) facilities or larger (up to regional) facilities. The last stage in March- April 2008 was called 'Issues and Options', where the County Council set out all the relevant waste and mineral issues or 'choices' that should be considered when developing the new 'waste strategy' and deciding on suitable sites for waste treatment and disposal. BALI made a detailed submission on this document a copy of which is available free of charge.

Next stage

The next stage will be the development of a 'Preferred Strategy' (document) where the council will choose its preferred options for dealing with waste. This document will 'identify strategic locations for key significant future waste site but not specific sites'. There will be a full consultation on this stage as previously and BALI will make submissions.

The stage after that will get into the selection of specific sites. Of course it will consider Ibstock's Ashdown site, but it will also consider sites previously rejected (like Mountfield) and entirely new locations.

What will be the WMDF's criteria for handling waste?

This is complex and as yet not fully decided. A lot of the WMDF is boringly detailed and difficult to read. However, landfill is considered a 'last resort' at the bottom of the 'waste hierarchy', the top being the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste. The Spatial Vision, setting out 5 objectives, is just about comprehensible and worth taking the trouble to read. Most of it, BALI would agree with, but not that East Sussex should provide for 'disposing of a proportion of London waste'.

How can BALI influence the process so that Ashdown is excluded from the WMDF?

Our Chairman, Nick Hollington, has so far been representing BALI in the ESC consultation and has made various submissions. However he considers that his own efforts will be insufficient in the next crucial stages. We will need experts. BALI will meet soon to consider whether now is the time to re-engage our planning consultant, Geoff Smith of DMH Stallard, and perhaps later, a barrister to fight our corner and do our best to try to make sure Ashdown is not selected in the WMDF as a suitable site for landfill. This will be expensive and our 'war chest' will be needed to be called upon.

Note: the timing of the next stages of the WMDF is not all clear. As Geoff Smith has said 'it moves at 'dinosaur pace'. The next stage is likely to be not until late Summer or even Autumn 2009.

The Big Danger: London Waste Coming Our Way

2009-01-01T22:42:00.000Z

The Background

The South East Plan, sometimes called the 'Regional Spatial Strategy', is a plan for the South East of England for the period 2006 - 2026 prepared by SEERA (South East England Regional Assembly) and submitted to Government (GOSE -The Government Office for the South East) in March 2006. There followed a lengthy inquiry called 'The Examination in Public' from November 2006 till August 2007. In July 2008, the Government finally approved the plan in principle but published 'Proposed Changes' which were subject to a consultation which ended last October. The Councils comprising the South East and other bodies then made their final, detailed submissions for final changes to the plan which is expected to be adopted final form in April 2009.

Is the South East Plan important?

Very. It replaces a document called RPG9 and provides for housing targets, economic developments, transport, employment etc. throughout the South East. For example, Rother District housing targets are not set by Rother District Council but by the South East Plan. Also all local planning frameworks, e.g. Rother District's Local Development Framework, must adhere to the South East Plan.

Why is it important for BALI?

One of the subjects covered by the plan is waste provision. The East Sussex Waste and Minerals Development Framework must adhere to it. This wouldn't matter much if it just left East Sussex to deal with it's own waste, but it required that East Sussex and all the other SE counties share out the disposal of most London waste over the next 20 years.

What are proposals for London waste?

London can't cope with all its own waste - though many feel it should - so the plan is to send 28 million tonnes of it to the South East (the Eastern region is to get 18 million tonnes) over the period 2006- 2026. Of this figure, Sussex is to get 4.6 million tonnes with approx. 2 million tonnes coming to East Sussex (recently reduced to 1.6 million tonnes). It is estimated that this will require 3 to 4 new landfill sites in Sussex, taking a minimum 1.8 million cubic meters of waste each year, the equivalent of 1,800 Olympic size swimming pools. At least 470,000 extra lorry carry movements each year would be required.

Does London agree to this?

The London Boroughs have been traditionally somewhat 'lazy' about their waste disposal, happy for someone else to take the waste out of their hands. However, both the previous London Mayor, Ken Livingstone and the current Mayor, Boris Johnson see the export of London waste to the South East country side as unsustainable. Ken Livingstone wanted to reject the South East Plan and by 2020 make London almost self-sufficient in managing its waste by greater recycling and a chain of massive anaerobic digesters around the city to not only dispose of the waste but also to create energy. It seems that Boris Johnson does not reject the plan, but has formed a London Waste and Recycling Board to boost recycling in the capital and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. He also favours the establishment of anaerobic digestion sites and incinerators around the city and an assault on over-packaging. The idea is that a coordinated all-London approach (previously each London Borough took responsibility for disposing of its own waste) will be more effective. However, this will take time to work and some Boroughs oppose it.

What is the County Council's response?

It is fair to say that both West and East Sussex councils have been fighting these proposals tooth and nail. West Sussex has run a high profile political campaign by councillors and MPS. East Sussex's response has been less high-profile but vigorous 'behind the scenes', led by Tony Cook, head of ESCC's Waste Planning Team, whom BALI speaks to on a regular basis. He argued that the plan does not take into account the limited degree of 'suitable void space' (basically holes in the ground) in East Sussex, most of which will be needed for its own waste. He also argues that East Sussex Green Belt is an environmental constraint and that the plan does not recognise that East Sussex is full of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Nor does it recognise the transport difficulties (distance, hardly any motorways etc.) which is largely why there has been no 'historic' disposal of London waste in our area.

Is London waste likely to come our way?

Almost certainly, yes, in the opinion of BALI's Chairman, Nick Hollington. East Sussex County Council accepts that in the medium term London will continue to be reliant on the regions for waste disposal. It would require a complete U-turn by Government to allow East Sussex to be an exception (though in fact Hampshire has been made such an exception) in not taking any London waste. At the end of the day, Tony Cook is (only) arguing about figures - and he has already achieved a reduction of the East Sussex figure to about 1.6 million tonnes. He also argues that these figures should only be considered an 'aspiration', not a requirement.

Does it have to mean more landfill?

They always only talk of landfilling London waste. BALI has questioned this, given there are many other methods of waste disposal, but we have seen no evidence of any other plan to deal with London waste than landfilling it.

Will it inevitably mean a landfill at Ashdown Brickworks?

It will certainly make it more likely. To quote Henry Smith, leader of WSCC, 'If people live near an earmarked waste site the threat of having that opened as a landfill is very real indeed'. However, there are still real difficulties with transport with access to the Ashdown site which very clearly need to be resolved before any landfilling takes place.

How will it happen? When? What next?

First, the South East Plan has to be approved in its final form. This may happen as early as April 2009 but could drag on. There is then likely to be a renewed focus in the media with an 'outcry' about London waste and new landfill sites.

The way things will happen is not by the Council 'requesting' an owner of a void-space (e.g.Ibstock) to provide a landfill. Unless, London Waste and Recycling Board steps in, London boroughs might have to hire a private waste contractor who would approach owners of a suitable site or the owners might make the approach. (The owners might have granted 'Landfill Options' already to a contractor.) Then, probably, the contractor, after preliminary soundings, would apply for planning permission. Of course, there would be a greater chance of success if the site is already earmarked for landfill in a waste plan (as Ashdown is in the ESCC Waste Local Plan) or framework. Of course, planning permission could be refused, for example as a result of an unsuccessful Environmental Assessment. But the South East Plan's requirement to accept London waste would clearly put more pressure on the planners to favour landfill applications.

What can BALI do?

Of course, BALI opposes London waste coming to East Sussex. The only way perhaps of stopping it is if, when the South East Plan is published, a high-profile political campaign is launched by East Sussex MPs, perhaps led by our local MP, Greg Barker. West Sussex MPs and councillors are already running such a campaign. Since there is a good chance that the Conservative Party will win the next election, it would be good if they would pledge to reverse the plan in terms of the export of London waste or at least review it. We should seek an early meeting with Greg Barker.

Links: West Sussex County Council Waste information

Ibstock meets BALI again

2008-11-30T22:36:00.000Z

On 26th November 2008 we held our second meeting with Ibstock. At our first meeting on 23rd May 2008, we agreed to meet on a six-monthly basis. At this latest meeting, Stephen Hardy, Ibstock Company Secretary was accompanied by Steve Chapman, Ashdown Site Manager. Representing BALI were Nick Hollington, Mike Rosner and Judy Murray.

While the detailed minutes of these meetings are kept confidential to BALI members, some of the main threads of this second meeting were as follows:

Ibstock has had no new approaches re: a landfill at Ashdown. (It is understood that Ibstock would not themselves operate a landfill, but make a commercial arrangement with a waste contractor such as Veolia, Cory, Viridor etc.)
There has been no charge of policy since our previous meeting when Ibstock promised full consultation with BALI and the local community before making any planning application for a landfill.
Ibstock summarised how it was coping with the recession in the brick making industry. The worry expressed by BALI was that the decline in demand for bricks might force an earlier consideration of the Ashdown site for landfill
Ibstock repeated their belief that London waste would not come to this area (proposed under the South East Plan) and that, if it did, they would only accept it if requested by the East Sussex County Council
Other Ibstock sites are being more actively considered for landfill e.g. Laybrook in West Sussex, where they are already consulting with the residents and a local action group
Ibstock have made a submission to the ESCC WMDF (as BALI has). We asked if BALI might see it.
The Rother District Local Development Framework document (Consultation on Strategic Directions) was discussed, which outlines a proposal for a country avenue in North Bexhill, extended to provide the transport infrastructure required for a landfill at Ashdown
Stephen Hardy outlined his work as Chairman of the Landfill Tax Trust

BALI has found these meetings with Ibstock frank, useful and informative. We hope to arrange a further meeting for May 2009.

Land to West of Bexhill Cemetery

2007-03-01T22:57:00.000Z

15/02/07: Planning Permission Granted for Change of Use

Rother District Council Planning Committee granted planning permission (subject to conditions) for change of use of land at St. Mary's Lane from agricultural use to use as a cemetery. The land is adjacent to the Ashdown Brickworks site.

The permission is in accord with the Rother District Local Plan and supports the Council's desire to provide sufficient provision for burial needs for the area.

The Planning Committee approved the grant despite a letter of objection from Ibstock, the owners of the Ashdown Brickworks site.

The Planning Agenda and Minutes from the Committee on the 15th February can be read on the Rother Council Website. Download the minutes from the Rother Council website. (Word format). If you download the Word format Minutes, you will need to refer to page 10 to read the specific grant Ref: RR/2006/3294/3R.

BALI letter re: Pebsham Tip Proposals

Read the letter by BALI Chair, Nick Hollington in response to the Planning Application to redevelop the Reprotech Pebsham site.

Turkey Road Battle Not Over Says BALI

2007-02-23T22:06:00.000Z

Turkey Road battle not over, says BALI

Visitors to a Spring Fair organised by Bexhill Against Landfill / Incineration (BALI) have been warned that the fight against the use of the Turkey Road brickworks quarries continues.
Introducing Town Mayor Cllr. Eric Armstrong, who was accompanies by his wife and Mayoress, Jeanette, BALI Chairman, Nick Hollington said; "Someone said as they came in "Are you still fighting, then?".
We are very much fighting. From our letter in the Bexhill Observer, you will see that we are still very much alive".
Referring to the objection lodged by brickworks owners Ibstock to Rother Council's plan to extend the Bexhill cemetery, the chairman said "Ibstock, quite clearly, are still thinking of using the quarries for landfill.
It is very difficult to run a campaign over a long time. People get tired and people get bored.
We have been going five or six years but we are still very grateful for the support we get from the community. The BALI 100 Club, where people can put in £100 towards our fighting fund and have it returned with interest if no application is made for landfill, is going well."
Cllr. Peter Fairhurst, Cllr. Paul Lendon and county council member Cllr. Martyn Foster were also present as the chairman added:"It is nice to see so many councillors here this morning."
The Town Mayor said "In the role of Town Mayor I am not allowed to make political statements but the issue BALI is fighting affects everyone in this town.
We don't want landfill and we don't want incineration in Bexhill."
Referring to the existing Pebsham tip, he said:"I live close to it and I can see no positive aspects for anyone."
He urged supporters to spend their money in supporting a worthwhile cause.
In addition to a stand loaded with recycling literature and a welcome display in the foyer of St. Martha's hall which included press cuttings and photographs, Saturday's event included cakes, jewellery, tombola, raffle and china and glass stalls in addition to bird boxes.

BALI comments on the recent planning application Pebsham Landfill Site

2007-01-19T22:59:00.000Z

Letter dated 19th January 2007 to East Sussex County Council from Nick Hollington, Chair of BALI

19th January 2007

Director of Transport and Environment
East Sussex County Council
County Hall
St Anne's Crescent
LEWES BN7 1UE

Dear Sir

Ref: Planning Application RR/498/CM(JP)

Proposed redevelopment at Reprotech Site, Pebsham

We wish to object to this development on behalf of the residents of Pebsham and Bexhill on a number of grounds as follows:

While it is established in the East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Waste Local Plan (WLP) that there might be a Waste Transfer Station (WTS) at Pebsham to assist increased recycling and diversion from landfill:
1. The WLP puts conditions on such a development which we believe are not met.
2. Residential properties are within 500 meters of this site and three schools within a kilometre. It may be that these and other environmental conditions cannot be met in a site so near a residential area.
3. Alternative sites may and should be considered.
4. If the development is to go ahead more consideration and respect must be given to the rights and amenities of Pebsham residents.
Pebsham residents have been more than patient and have done more than their fair share in serving the county's waste disposal and treatment needs for over 50 years. They have been promised several times an end to waste activity in the vicinity. The proposal represents a breach of these promises.
Pebsham residents continue to be affected by the BIFFA landfill, due to close in 2008, but for which an application for extension till 2011 is shortly to be submitted, as well as Southern Water's waste water treatment plant. Not only are there problems in such activity such as noise and smell, but they generate a substantial volume of vehicle movement causing greater noise and traffic congestion. A Waste Transfer Station will only exacerbate these problems.
It is recognized that the A259 at Bexhill Road is overloaded:
1. Air pollution levels in this area are above accepted levels. This has been recently measured. It is an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).
2. Traffic is heavily congested.
There will be substantially increased traffic movements as a result of the proposed development which will simply worsen the situation and there is still no certainty that the alternative Bexhill-Hastings Link Road will be built.
In this connection the ESCC Waste Local Plan itself makes its own conditions (Policy WLP 6.27) that "any increase in vehicle movements along the A259 would be unacceptable until the strategic road network in the area has been improved" and again later "Any net increase in traffic would be unacceptable at least until measures have been implemented to relieve congestion on the A259". However if the landfill's life is extended and there is no reduction in other waste or waste water treatment activity there will inevitably be an increase in traffic.
Policy WLP 36. states that proposals will not be permitted "where access arrangements are inadequate for the volume and nature of traffic generated by the proposal". Current access to the plant via the "junction" with the A259 is totally unsatisfactory. It is a major cause of delay and relies on the pedestrian traffic lights to make a gap in the traffic. Such a long-term development as is being proposed for the Reprotech site clearly requires entirely better access such as a slip road with traffic lights or a roundabout.
There will be increased hazards for other road users and again, according to the WLP proposals will not be permitted where such is the case.
Noise is a particular concern because of the acoustics of the area. A local resident Ken Paterson, recently reported on the high existing noise levels in the local newspaper (see Bexhill Observer 5.01.07). Not only the noise from the landfill and the household tip can be heard but also "the drone of the sewage plant, and even the noises of football matches on the Bulverhythe playing-fields".
In this context the hours of operation proposed for the WTS as 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. - seven days a week are completely unacceptable and show no respect for the local residents' rights and amenities. Particularly no activity should take place on a Sunday. NB. Pebsham Farm Industrial Units were refused longer hours and the same criteria should be applied in this case.
In particular regarding noise, Policy WLP 35 states that all proposals shall contain "adequate means of controlling noise" and we are not satisfied that sufficient arrangements have been met in this regard:
1. The use of the site for skip storage and activity is of concern as skips heighten noise annoyance when dragged or dropped. Care needs to be taken to provide rubberized surfaces and undercover areas.
2. It is not clear that sufficient sound insulation will be provided to all buildings.
3. Residents are particularly maddened by reverse warning beeps from "smart" devices fitted to lorries. These are aggravating noises if continual and, while mindful of health and safety requirements, these should be minimized wherever possible or the hours when reversing will take place reduced.
4. It is not clear how many sensors there will be to check on noise or how inspections will proceed and at what frequency. Tests must be made throughout the site and the surrounding area and not on just one part of the site which currently is totally unrepresentative! Please see the addendum for which I am grateful to Mr Roy Goodall. There is also an echo effect produced by the valley which must be taken into account to evaluate the true level of noise.
5. We are not satisfied there is sufficient landscaping in the proposal. The site should be hidden from residents by planting high evergreen trees. This would also enhance noise and dust suppression for residents.
6. WLP 6.27 states that any development proposal for this area "needs to be co-ordinated with plans for the Pebsham Countryside Park" and that "redevelopment proposals for this site "must assist in reducing visual impact". Evergreen trees along the Western and Northern Western sides would assist, but it is not clear how noise and dust impact would be controlled.
7. Clearly the development would be required under WLP 6 to meet current environmental standards as to air quality and an environmental report will presumably be forthcoming. However it is difficult to see how the currently poor air quality will be improved and every reason to think it will deteriorate especially if the BIFFA landfill site is extended. Further detailed environmental consideration needs to be given in this area. For example there is too much reliance on gatekeepers/weighbridge operators for ensuring doors are opened and closed per lorry visit. In summer the station will be hot and the door may be left open all the time with consequent pollution and fumes from the lorries. There needs to be proper air-conditioning and an automatic system of opening and closing doors.
8. The proposed overnight parking at the site of 40 refuse vehicles previously housed at the Bulverhythe Depot may or may not reduce vehicle movements but clearly will increase noise and petrol fume nuisance to the residents from early in the morning till late at night.
9. The accumulation of all the above difficulties surely suggests that this site is not a suitable location for the proposed development. It is surely not, under WLP 35 "of a scale, form and character appropriate to its location". This not only is in relation to its proximity to the homes but also given the proposed Pebsham Countryside Park which local residents were promised, after all their trials, as a haven of beauty and tranquility. It is difficult to see how this project will not be spoiled by this development on the Southern side together with the planned Link Road on the Northern side.
10. In addition Freshfields Road has lately been put forward as one possible site (out of 3) for a travellers' transit camp! Surely the combination of a Waste Transfer Station and a travellers' camp is not a sensible idea?
11. We respect that this proposal by Veolia is made to meet local needs as part of its long-term strategic integrated waste management service to the county as outlined in the WLP. But how this proposal fits in to their strategy or plan is not made clear particularly in regard to their facilities for non-recyclables (BALI recognizes the great strides made by Veolia in recycling facilities). These presumably primarily concern the proposed incinerator at Newhaven but may also impact on the suggested (in the WLP) landfill at Ashdown Brickworks. Pebsham and Bexhill residents surely have a right to see the "bigger picture" of how this proposal will fit in with others, where all the lorries are likely to come from and go etc.
12. While this proposal currently deals with the "transfer" of recyclable waste there is an underlying sense of Pebsham and Bexhill as a whole being used as East Sussex's permanent dumping ground. The Council and Veolia will need to act positively to dispel this impression.
13. Finally we are shocked to understand that at present it is not planned to commission a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regarding this proposal. This is a highly questionable decision and should be immediately reversed. This development is a new long-term development which could result in a seriously adverse impact on local residents' health and well-being with regard to all kinds of pollution, noise, dust, odour, etc. Furthermore there is the factor of the proposed Pebsham Countryside Park to consider. It is not "same again" and demands full environmental reappraisal. We therefore ask the council to reconsider its decision on this matter.

Nick Hollington , Chairman BALI

ADDENDUM re: noise assessment

The Noise Assessment data produced by the applicant was based on readings taken at a point which is not representative of the area near the proposed site, although their statement suggests otherwise. No. 2 Pebsham Lane was used, and was the only place used, to gather data. This house is a considerable distance from the proposed development which would, therefore not be indicative of the potential noise levels one could expect at, for instance, Top Cross Road and nearby roads /residences.
A more appropriate study must be initiated by both the applicant and the Environmental Agency. To allow the application without this new study would result in many roads nearer to the plant suffering excessive noise levels far and above that recorded at No.2 Pebsham Lane. Then, any complaints from the nearer houses in the future would be met with "the operation is within the planning limits". The decibel readings and projected noise levels would be met for those people living at the far end of Pebsham Lane (near to No. 2) but the noise levels would increase in magnitude the further along Pebsham Lane one travelled. These noise levels would rise exponentially. This is not good enough!

BALI No Landfill At Bexhill

BALI AGM Postponed

ADVANCE NOTICE of the BALI AGM

WANTED:- BALI need a Social Secretary or a team

BALI Membership Drive Now On!

BALLI Membership now Launched!

Meeting of Key Stakeholders Report

Bexhill Achievers Recognition for BALI

Fight Continues Over Landfill

A Taste of BALI at Freezeland Farm

BALI Events for Your Diary

Competition finalist to give his prizes to BALI, Bexhill Groups & the environment

LGA: Eight Years Left of Landfill

Come and Meet BALI at Green Day 3rd July 2010

Register Now to Become a Member of BALI! Please Show Your Support

Government Announces a Review of Waste policy

BALI Westminster No-Landfill Demo 11th June 2010

BALI Westminster Trip This Friday!

BALI visit to Laybrook and Thakeham Village Action

Landfill protesters join in Highwoods group's 30th birthday

House of Commons Visit Friday 11th June 2010

Ashdown Brickworks Site: Jurassic Park?

Bexhill Cemetery Will Expand Despite Threat of Landfill

ESCC Freedom of Information Request re Ashdown Brickworks site

BALI Chairman Newsletter - January 2010

BALI Chairman Newsletter - December 2009

Christmas & New Year Message from Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALIas published in the Bexhill Observer dated 11th December 2009

Link-Up Sparks Landfill Fears

As Reported in the Bexhill Observer of 4th December 2009

The threat of landfill in Bexhill has grown with the news of an agreement between the owners of Ashdown Brickworks and a waste management company.

BALI Chairman Newsletter - November 2009

Donations and Other Practical Help

New Concerns

Health Concerns

Alternative Uses for the Ashdown Site

Support from Local Groups

Support from Local Councillors

Response from Rother District Council

BALI's latest Action

BALI's Official Response

BALI attends the The Link Road Enquiry

BALI Committee Changes

Join in the Campaign!

Chairmans Speech to the Public Meeting November 6th 2009

BALI Chairman's Speech

So What Do We Have To Do?

Unity Against Landfill Plan for Ashdown Brickworks

Report on the Public Meeting 6th November 2009

Information about the Public Meeting and Links to the Minutes and other relevant articles.

Thank you to everyone who turned out in the rain and came along to the Public Meeting on 6th November, especially to those who were unable to get in to the meeting to hear the speakers but who wanted to have their say.

Thank you also to those who generously donated to the campaign at the meeting - the fantastic sum of £1,169 was raised.

Please read:- BALI's minutes of the public meeting, and- the speech notes from the meeting of Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI.

Read the Bexhill Observer write up of the meeting.

Further news and developments will be published on this website as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please do make your views known via one of the ways set out below but importantly, please let East Sussex County Council know your views and objections.

How to Object To The Landfill Proposal

BALI Headline Comments on ESCC Preferred Strategy For Waste

Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (& supporting paragraphs)Waste & Minerals Policy, ESCC Preferred Strategy for Waste

Preferred Option Selection (section 12)

Policy CS6 (6 'bullet points' in the 'Policy')(Section 12)

1. Ashdown Brickworks should not be included in the Primary Area of Search (Plan 4)

2. There will be an unacceptable impact on the environment

3. There would be cumulative adverse impacts on the Local Community. This harm would be greater than when the current Waste Local Plan was prepared.

4. There is very poor vehicular access to the Ashdown Brickworks

5. The availability of Ashdown brickworks for waste disposal by landfill is not confirmed

Appendix A - Strategy for Implementation

Policy CS6 - Delete all References to Ashdown Brickworks

Big Hitters take up the Rubbish Dump Fight

Ashdown Brickworks is first choice for a vast new landfill site

Update on Planning, Transport & Other Issues at Ashdown Brickworks

The Landfill Threat Becomes Real

Ashdown the 'Preferred Option'

The Next Public Consultation

Effects on the Community

BALI's latest action

BALI's case

Rother District Council

Greg Barker MP

Defeat This Monstrous Plan

BALI Chairman Newsletter - September 2009

Christmas & New Year Message from Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI
as published in the Bexhill Observer dated 11th December 2009

Please read:
- BALI's minutes of the public meeting, and
- the speech notes from the meeting of Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI.

Headline Comments on the relevant proposed Policies (& supporting paragraphs)
Waste & Minerals Policy, ESCC Preferred Strategy for Waste