Locations for Incinerators and Other Major Projects Should Be Identified in Development Plans
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The preferred locations for major infrastructure projects – such as roads and incinerators – should be indicated in City and County Development Plans so that the public have advance notice of where they are to go, the President of the Irish Planning Institute, Mr Henk van der Kamp, said today (Tues).
He maintained that the “Fast Track” approach to major schemes contained in the recent Strategic Infrastructure Act would only be acceptable if the project has been identified in a Plan which has gone through a public consultation process.
Mr van der Kamp stated: “The key problem is that the current process is project-led rather than plan-led. Major waste projects, such as incinerators and landfills, are included in principle in Waste Management Plans (WMPs), but their locations are not identified.”
Mr van der Kamp told the National Waste Summit in Croke Park: Hence, when the projects are proposed, there is opposition since the local communities in these locations have had no input into the choice of sites. This could be solved by requiring the inclusion, in the County or City Development Plans, of the preferred locations for such projects.”
He stated: “Local authorities are required to make waste management plans for their areas. However, the delivery of the key infrastructure under such plans (in particular landfills and incinerators), happens through the spatial planning system.
“Almost everyone is concerned about the current way in which waste infrastructure is delivered. Objectors are concerned about the location of proposed projects while delivering agencies are concerned about the significant delays that are experienced. Based on a survey of planning documents and individual An Bord Pleanala planning decisions, the following conclusions are drawn:
• Most Waste Management Plans are not specific with regard to required waste infrastructure, in particular the location of such infrastructure;
• Planning decisions for waste infrastructure make explicit reference to the WMP for the relevant area;
• Impacts on planning decisions of WMPs are felt in:
- occasional refusals because of conflict with WMP;
- limit of duration of permission of a landfill facility;
- limit of capacity (annual tonnage) of a facility;
- limit of catchment area of waste.
• The location of proposed infrastructure is also insufficiently identified in development plans;
• The provision that the development plan shall be ‘deemed to include’ objectives of the Waste Management Plan can create difficulties where such objectives are ‘location specific’.
• Part of the delays are caused by the sequential nature of the planning process;
• The planning authority component of the overall planning process is not always significant in terms of the overall length of planning process;
• The impact of the Strategic Infrastructure Act on reducing delays may therefore not be as significant as expected.
• All planning documents incl. the National Spatial Strategy, Regional Planning Guidelines and City & County Development Plans must indicate locations of preferred sites for strategic landfill and incinerator projects;
• The current ‘project-led’ planning process should be replaced by a more ‘plan-led’ planning process;
• ‘Fast track’ procedures should only be acceptable where a project has been identified in a plan that has gone through a public consultation process.”
Based on the findings, Mr van der Kamp concluded that both landfill and incinerator infrastructure projects are insufficiently identified in planning documents such as the county development plan.
“As a result, local communities are often taken by surprise when a project is proposed in their local area, notwithstanding the fact that the general principle may have been included in the Waste Management Plan or County Development Plan for the area.
“‘Fast track’ procedures, such as introduced in the recently adopted Strategic Infrastructure Act, should only be acceptable where a project has been identified in a plan that has gone through a public consultation process. Even then, the impact of the Strategic Infrastructure Act in terms of reducing delays may not be as significant as expected,” he stated.