West Suffolk Operational Hub – next steps

16 Jun 2015

More consultation about the proposed site of the West Suffolk Operational Hub could be carried out if St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Cabinet approves the next steps.

The Hub is a partnership project involving the two West Suffolk councils, Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury, and Suffolk County Council. The aim is to have a building where waste collected from across West Suffolk would be bulked and put into larger lorries and taken to Great Blakenham for disposal. On the same site would be an easy-access Household Waste Recycling Centre, replacing the one on Rougham Hill, and a vehicle depot containing refuse collection vehicles and other council vehicles and workshops replacing the one at Western Way.

Cllr John Griffiths, Leader of the Council, said: “We have had a large number of responses from people during the consultation period which we extended. This has been both informative and very useful enabling us to fully consider and address concerns before any formal planning application is submitted. One of the most common questions was from people wanting to know why Hollow Road Farm was chosen as the partnership’s preferred site, so I am asking my Cabinet colleagues to approve another further period of consultation to focus on this.”

The partnership carried out a wide ranging consultation earlier this year and the results are part of a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which would be submitted with any planning application for the Hollow Road Farm site. Carrying out consultation before a formal planning application is good practice because it provides early engagement with local communities and enables designs improvements to be made.

The first pre-application consultation resulted in 640 responses and two petitions, with most objecting to the site due to its location and potential traffic issues. A summary of the consultation comments, with outline responses, is available on: https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/wsoh 

Full details of the consultations carried out so far will be available when the SCI is formally submitted.

If Cabinet approve the next round of consultation at their meeting on 23 June (Forest Heath’s Cabinet will consider the issue on 14 July), a document will be prepared and issued later in the summer for people to be able to view, and comment on the case for a combined facility, the criteria used when considering alternative sites and why the partners believe Hollow Road Farm best meets them.

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