In January 2008 Suffolk County Council declared that it was
to offer its highways maintenance depot in Great Blakenham as a
potential site for dealing with the county's left over waste.
The site was offered to companies interested in bidding to build
and run a residual waste facility in Suffolk.
Please find below a link to the full press release relating to the
announcement.
news release 17/01/08 (PDF,22.32kb)
What did your announcement mean?
Suffolk County Council identified a site that it would
offer to tenderers who are bidding to build a residual waste
treatment facility. By offering a site, we encouraged
competition and therefore secured a better price for the
Suffolk Council tax payer. It levelled the playing field for
contractors who may have been interested in bidding for the
contract, but who don’t necessarily have a suitable site of their
own already in Suffolk.
We are not announcing the final site location, as this will
be determined through the planning process. However, our
preferred bidder, Sita, has named Great Blakenham as the site they
would utilise and apply for planning permission against if
awarded the contract later this year.
Why did you chosen this site?
A list of sites was drawn up in accordance with the
Waste Local Plan and were assessed against a set of criteria
for their suitability. The criteria used were;
- Physical issues – is the site big enough, available and
suitable for construction?
- Location – does the site conform with the policies of the Waste
Local Plan?
- Environmental – what are the impacts on the environment?
- Acceptability – does the site have access to a good transport
infrastructure?
- Economic – what will be the cost of any required
infrastructure?
We found that the Suffolk County Council Depot at Great
Blakenham was a site that we could secure and offer to the
market.
What does the site look like at the moment?
Click on the link below to view pictures of the Great Blakenham
site as it currently looks.
The site Suffolk County Council are offering (PDF,
266kb)
I live near the site you have offered. How will I be
affected?
At this stage we can not say where the final location for the
Residual Waste Treatment Facility will be. Although the preferred
bidder based their submission to us on the depot site, it will
be the planning process that will determine the eventual
location. The planning process ensures that there is extensive and
formal public consultation and you will have several opportunities
to influence the decision on the location as well as other aspects
of the planning application. The preferred bidder will undertake
pre planning consultation in the area it will wish to gain planning
permission.
Will the eventual final site definitely have an Energy from
Waste plant?
Suffolk County Council needed to show a preference for a
technology in order to progress with its bid to the Government for
funding the project. After much research, we declared a
preference for Energy from Waste technology, as we feel it is a
workable solution for Suffolk. The preferred bidder, Sita UK based
their proposals on building and operating an Energy from Waste
plant.
When will the eventual residual waste treatment facility be up and
running?
It will not be operating until the end of 2014 at the
earliest.
Why are you telling us this information so early on?
Suffolk County Council are committed to conducting our work to
prepare for the future procurement of Suffolk’s Waste Disposal
Services in an open and transparent manner. It is true that the
process still has several years to go before the final facility is
up and running, however, it is important that people know that
opportunities will arise for them throughout the planning process
to have their say and be properly consulted.
What happens next?
In early May we announced our preferred bidder, Sita UK.
We expect that the preferred bidder will submit their planning
application at the end of this year. In the
meantime there will be lots of pre-planning consultation
undertaken by the bidder.
How will I be kept informed of the progress in this
project?
- We will continue to post information and progress on these
webpages
- We will issue press releases
- We will continue to hold roadshows and events throughout the
County and we will have current information on the project. Suffolk
County Council posts all its event details on
www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk
- We have also drafted information on the project timeline to
illustrate the main times when formal public consultations will
take place. To access this information, click on the link
below
How can I have my say? (PDF, 20.96kb)
Background information relating to site selection
Below is the report which sets out the process the county
council went through before it selected the Suffolk County
Council's Highways Depot at Great Blakenham as a suitable site to
offer to contractors for a Residual Waste Treatment Facility.
The county council made it's decision on the site it would
offer based on the report below.
Prior to releasing the report we consulted with all landowners of
the shortlisted sites to satisfy ourselves that releasing the
information did not compromise their commerical
interests.
We have published all the information on the sites where the
landowners were happy to have this released, and removed the
information where the relevant landowners have not given their
consent for this to be published.
Site Selection report (PDF,
207.47kb)