Clinical Waste Facility - Kitsmead Lane

We have sent an objcetion to the proposed Clinical Waste facility for Kitsmead Lane to Surrey County Council

CLINICAL WASTE FACILITY KITSMEAD LANE - Planning Application

The Planning Application SCC Ref 2020/0057 for the erection of a small scale clinical waste thermal treatment facility should not be granted permission for the following reasons.

• This planning application relates to a strategic waste facility, which is planned to serve a 50 mile radius. It should not be looked at in isolation but as part of the bigger regional picture for waste management. That is, facilities such as these, need to be geographically dispersed in order that they serve communities efficiently and minimise vehicle travel miles, to help manage and reduce the carbon footprint of waste.

With regard to this, there is an established clinical waste incinerator facility at Colnbrook, Berkshire, which is run by Grundon. This facility is 8 miles and 20 minutes away from the proposed new facility at Kitsmead Lane, Longcross. We believe this existing facility is currently used by many producers of clinical waste in North Surrey, not least the Ashford and St Peter's Hospital Trust, the largest source of clinical waste in the immediate area.

Given this, I would argue that having two such facilities just eight miles apart is not justifiable.

• The application has not established why this additional facility is currently required in this area, so close to the Colnbrook facility.

• Although the site appears very rural the development of the Longcross Garden Village will ultimately result in c. 2000 new homes in the immediate vicinity. It will also be directly next to and overlooked by the Chertsey Common SANG (Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace).

• There are only two access routes to the site for HGV's due to weight and height restrictions on the surrounding roads. The first one via Junction 11 of the M25, along the A320, up Holloway Hill and into Longcross Road. The second via the A30 at Virginia Water, along Christchurch Rd and along Wellington Avenue to Trumps Green Road. Additional clinical waste and associated traffic would therefore be forced to use one of the busiest stretches of the motorway network in the country, whilst compounding existing issues on the local road network.

Additionally, the local roads are too narrow and windy to accommodate HGV's comfortably in this area. The current heavy goods traffic straddles both sides of the road, which causes a major hazard to other road traffic.

Don Whyte

Liberal Democrat Councillor

Runnymede Borough, Longcross, Lyne & Chertsey South Ward