Sunday 19 November 2017

Ditch the Dump! Dollis Hill protests at being made a 'rubbish sandwich' by Barnet Council


148 residents have objected to the locating of a waste transfer facility on the Edgware Road near residential properties and a school. The 'dump' is just within the Barnet boundary but will affect Brent residents. There are no comments support the proposal on the Barnet Council planning portal. LINK

Alison Hopkins has submitted the following comment:

I object in the strongest possible terms to this damaging and wholly unnecessary planning application. This is on the grounds of proximity to housing and schools, vastly increased traffic and congestion, air pollution and noise and environmental damage. 

Over the decades, we in Dollis Hill and Brent have been ignore and side-lined by Barnet Council. Our objections to the disastrous changes to road layouts, the massive increase in traffic, both cars and lorries on our roads, and to the destruction of our community by Barnet Council have been ignored.
There is no benefit to anyone living in Brent of ANY of your plans. Using the word regeneration to describe them is laughable if it were not so tragic. 

Barnet and its Brent Cross development partners have carried out a few so-called consultation exercise here. These have not only been meaningless, but have also resulted in the production of documentation which has gone from misleading to outright lies. 

The dump – and let’s not call it a waste transfer facility, that’s camouflage – is not needed. The only reason that the current WTF is being moved from the eastern side of the railway line is so that Barnet and the Brent Cross partners can build expensive housing with a high return to overseas and other investors. The current WTF is in a non-residential area and waste is moved out to landfill by train. Barnet claim that it’s not as bad as the original plans, as it’s “smaller”. Well, it’s far worse than the current dump, which at least makes some pretence to environmental care by using rail. However, the current dump also emits pollution and is a source of considerable stink to residents. 

These plans call for a WTF – dump, let’s use the word again! – on the doorstep s of thousands of homes in Brent, and across from an infant’s school. These are less than fifty metres away. And of course, the dump is also directly next door to the Fellows Place development, a major housing development recently given consent by Barnet. 

There will be thousands of heavy refuse trucks entering, and thousands leaving. The processing and compaction will cause noise and dust and dirt. Nano particulate pollution has been proven to cause the most damage to small children - those small children who will be forced be neighbours of the dump. 

The Edgware Road is already at the highest pollution levels in London. The refuse trucks and lorries will add to this.


Barnet propose to site this dump as far as possible from their residents as they can and as close to Brent as they can. It will not be their voters who suffer, it will be us. 


And, given that this waste goes to landfill and recycling plants well outside London, why on earth does it need to be so close in? The answer is that it doesn’t. it is sited to suit the Brent Cross development – that regeneration that means we get messed up roads and ruined neighbourhoods. 

The current WTF already causes a stink in warm weather which can be smelled from some distance away – moving it to close proximity to homes and schools is utterly unacceptable. 

What is also horrifying is the fire risk: I quote from the Chief Fire Officers Association: “Waste fires are a consistent issue for the waste and recycling industry, with the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) estimating that there have been around 250 incidents of waste fires per year for the last decade, with an estimated cost to fire and rescue services of around £16 million a year.” The proposed dump is directly opposite two petrol stations. 

The North London Waste Authority themselves originally opposed this site on the grounds of proximity of schools and houses. Those houses and schools haven’t moved, so why the sudden withdrawal of those objections? 

Between this dump and the massive aggregate crushing plant proposed for a few hundred yards further south, we in Brent are a rubbish sandwich. Barnet need to LISTEN to us, not ignore us!
 Another resident comments:

Yet another senseless proposal by Barnet Council for the creation of a rubbish dump, coincidentally located at the very edge of the council limits. The location of the planned waste dump is also just outside the Low Emission Bus Zones announced by the Mayor of London LINK. Just in time, improvements in air quality introduced by this low emission zone will be immediately counteracted by a step increase in the number of HGV coming in and out of the proposed dump. Good job Barnet Council, you are continuing to actively work against the best interest of your tax payers and those from neighbouring councils.

For these reasons, I object to this application. Hopefully the committee will have some common sense and will put the health of tax payers ahead of other interests.

To comment go to LINK



6 comments:

Unknown said...

This scheme is utter madness in a dense residential area of Brent. With the Mayors campaign for cleaner air, less pollution from vehicles what is going on at Barnet Council and what makes them think that this will succeed?

EXCERPT FROM FELLOWES SQUARE DEVELOPMENT, NW2 Cricklewood, under construction right next to the proposed WTF DUMP.
“The time is now…. TO OPPOSE THIS DUMP.
After the £2m transformation of its own high street, Cricklewood is now reaping the rewards of the multi-billion pound regeneration project underway at Brent Cross Cricklewood with enormous investment and opportunities being drawn to this thriving area. Where better then to set up home. Fellows Square, an intelligently considered new development of design-led apartments, offers the perfect opportunity to take advantage of this comprehensive urban renewal. 1. Winter garden Light-infused spaces that bring the outdoors inside. 2. Kitchen Where easy living meets timeless elegance. 3. Bedroom A modern take on serenity. 1 2 3 Taking the lead from Cricklewood’s rich heritage, warm brick combines with the clean contemporary lines of glass to create a bold yet elegant vision, blending beautifully with the private landscaped grounds: a true oasis within North West London’s bustling urban heart.
Here, every care has been taken to create exceptional homes and beautiful gardens with simple design touches that make living easy in a location that’s undergoing major change. Together this makes Fellows Square a home, not just for today, but for the most exciting of futures.
Well I guess it’s not all lies, it does stress that it’s an investment opportunity, and if they have sold many off-plan which they probably have to foreigners who are never actually going to live there, then it is possible they don’t care about their little Oasis being next to a “Rubbish Dump” certainly the light infused spaces will definitely be bringing the outdoors inside. Complete with dust, and horrific smells. What on earth is Barnet Council thinking, if I were the Developer of these flats I would want to sue if this DUMP goes ahead, for wrecking my chances of ever selling these homes.

Anonymous said...

Just a few metres south from the dump, on the other side of the extensive new housing, is the proposed concrete/aggregate and building rubble depot.

THAT has 688 comments from members of the public!

It is Barnet's planning application 17/5761/EIA

Anonymous said...

WTF is going on in Barnet????? Clearly they don't love the neighbours.

Anonymous said...

Jokers

Alison Hopkins said...

I know people who've bought flats there. They were not told of all this. :(

Alison Hopkins said...

I'm waiting to see what Brent has to say. Given that ward councillors had a presentation from Barnet about all this in early October, it will be interesting to find out why none of them saw fit to tell residents, won't it.