HIGH HEAVENS WASTE TRANSFER STATION, HIGH WYCOMBE

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1 2nd September 2010 Transport Development Control Buckinghamshire County Council The Winslow Centre Park Road Winslow Buckinghamshire MK18 3RB FAO Mr D. Tester Our Ref: Your Ref: Dear Mr Tester RE: HIGH HEAVENS WASTE TRANSFER STATION, HIGH WYCOMBE We have been instructed by Waste Recycling Group (WRG) to submit two planning applications for two proposed Waste Transfer Stations (WTS) in Buckinghamshire, one of which would be located near the Household Waste Recycling Centre off Clay Lane, High Heavens, and is the subject of this letter. The location of the site is shown on the enclosed Drawing. The WTSs are required to support the proposed Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at Greatmoor which is currently being pursued by WRG. We are writing to agree with you a scope for the Transport section of the Environmental Statement (ES) which is being prepared to support the planning application which would be produced as a Transport Assessment in accordance with current guidance 1. Set out below is our proposed methodology for producing the transport ES chapter. Proposed Development The proposed development consists of a main operational building into which waste is delivered, within which it is unloaded, bulked up and loaded for transportation to its final destination. Ancillary development consists of a small amenity block for staff, water tank and pump house for the sprinkler system, weighbridges, loose plant fuelling point and vehicle parking and manoeuvring areas. Access to the Site would be via the existing Depot access road. Waste would be transported to the Site by a combination roadside collection vehicles and bulk carriers. Export of materials from the site would be by dedicated bulk carrier. Throughput is anticipated to be up to 84000tpa. The design capacity to allow for peaks in throughput is tpa (annual equivalent). 1 Guidance On Transport Assessment, Department For Transport, 2007

2 Waste Recycling Group 2 Ref: High Heavens Waste Transfer Station 2 nd August 2010 Policy It is recognised that there are existing policies in place, nationally, regionally and locally, which address the issue of waste traffic and traffic in general. All relevant policy documents will be reviewed in order to confirm that the proposed development would not contravene any of the following policy documents: PPS1 delivering sustainable development (2005); PPG13: Transport (2001); the South East Plan Regional Spatial Strategy for the South East of England (may 2009, revoked June 2010); Buckinghamshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan ; Buckinghamshire County Council Local Transport Plan 2 ( ); Buckinghamshire County Council Structure Plan ( ); Wycombe Area Action Plan (2001); and Wycombe District Council Local Plan (January 2004). Traffic Impact The High Heavens WTS would accept in the order of 67,000 tonnes of waste per annum direct from kerbside in refuse collection vehicles. It would also accept 62,000 tonnes per annum of commercial and industrial waste therefore processing a total of 129,000 tonnes of waste per annum. Waste would be transferred from the WTS to the proposed Greatmoor EfW facility in heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) with a 21-tonne (average) capacity payload. The WTS operating hours would be consistent with that of the proposed Greatmoor EfW facility. These hours are hrs Monday to Friday and hrs on Saturdays with no receipt of waste on Sundays or Bank Holidays. Overall, the WTS would be operational 305 days per year. It is therefore calculated at this initial stage that the WTS would generate approximately: 42 HGV trips per day (two-way); plus 110 RCV trips per day (two-way) We will determine the daily profile of RCV movements through use of the TRICS database. We would use the Civic Amenity Site land use and Landfill sub-land use categories, which we believe would be representative of WTS traffic movements. From the daily profile we will determine the RCV trips that are generated during the highway peak hours. We will assume that the 21-tonne HGVs transferring the waste to EfW would be distributed evenly over an 11-hour day. An initial TRICS analysis has estimated that 10% of trips would be made during the AM peak hour ( ) and 1.5% during the PM peak ( ). It is therefore calculated that the WTS would generate around 15 two-way RCVs/HGVs in the AM peak and 2 two-way RCVs/HGVs in the PM peak. That equates to 1 trip every 3.5 minutes in the AM peak and 1 trip every 30 minutes in the PM peak hour. There will of course be a small number of light vehicle trips associated with staff movements and visitors but these are expected to be negligible. However, a small number of trips to signify these movements will be accounted for in our assessment. The distribution of RCV trips on the local highway network would be based on geographical location of residential areas as this is where most of the RCV traffic would be generated from. Our initial estimate is that the majority of RCV trips (c.90%) will arrive from the north. SLR P:\404 - Redditch\ WRG\ High Heavens WTS\Communications\100820_ _scoping_letter.docx

3 Waste Recycling Group 3 Ref: High Heavens Waste Transfer Station 2 nd August 2010 In terms of HGV loads transferring waste to the proposed EfW facility, it is anticipated that the route taken would be via the M40 to junction 9 and approach the site from the west on the A41. Assuming it is not available from Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC), we intend commissioning traffic surveys this month (September 2010) in order to obtain a baseline of traffic flows for the adjacent highway network in order to determine the traffic impact. Due to the low number of development trips we do not consider it necessary to assess traffic impact beyond the following junction: Cressex Road / New Road Roundabout. Assuming that the impact is negligible at this junction and that the impact of HGVs is less than 30% we would propose that no junction capacity assessments would be necessary. We intend assessing the impact of the proposed WTS against a baseline situation which includes all traffic from committed developments, i.e. those with planning permission but have yet to be constructed. Therefore, it would be appreciated if you could inform us as to whether the County Council is aware of any such developments in the locality of the application site. Road Safety We have obtained road traffic accident data from BCC for the five year period 1 January December This data will be analysed to identify any trends / patterns in accidents and determine what level of impact there would be on the safety of road users. Sustainable Transport Whilst we recognise that waste transfer stations do not lend themselves to being sustainable in transport terms, there is a certain responsibility for the applicant to demonstrate that alternative modes of travel to the private car are preferred, such as by using public transport, walking or cycling. The potential for these modes of travel to be used by employees / visitors will be explored in the transport section of the ES. Closure Whilst the above is our proposed methodology and scope for undertaking the transport assessment, we value the opinion of the local highway authority and would therefore consider any additional items you wish to see included within the forthcoming assessment. Whether you consider that our proposed scope of work is satisfactory or that you would like to see changes made to the scope please let us know by return letter or via the address below. In the meantime, should you have any questions relating to the above, please do not hesitate to call. Yours sincerely SLR P:\404 - Redditch\ WRG\ High Heavens WTS\Communications\100820_ _scoping_letter.docx

4 Waste Recycling Group 4 Ref: High Heavens Waste Transfer Station 2 nd August 2010 SLR Consulting Limited Dean Watkins Associate dwatkins@slrconsulting.com# Tel cc Enc Matthew Hardy location plan SLR P:\404 - Redditch\ WRG\ High Heavens WTS\Communications\100820_ _scoping_letter.docx

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6 Dean Watkins From: Hardy, Matthew Sent: 06 October :07 To: Dean Watkins Subject: High Heavens & Amersham Waste Transfer Stations Dear Dean, I've now had a chance to review the proposed scoping for the Transport section of the Environmental Statement for both proposed Waste Transfer Stations at the above sites. My apologies for the inordinate delay in getting back to you. The only thing that I can think to add to the robust list of topics would be to include the proposed routing for both sites, specifically with regard to the route taken from the proposed stations to the Greatmoor EfW site. I would also suggest that you contact our Traffic Information team at tfb@buckscc.gov.uk or by asking for them via our Transport for Buckinghamshire phone service on in order to ascertain the collision statistics and existing traffic count information. I hope that this information has been of assistance. Best regards, Matt Hardy Senior Engineer Transport Development Control (South) Transport for Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire County Council Visit our Web Site : Buckinghamshire County Council Disclaimer Join The Bucks Debate: This , and any attachments, may contain Protected or Restricted information and is intended solely for the individual to whom it is addressed. It may contain sensitive or protectively marked material and should be handled accordingly. If this has been misdirected, please notify the author or postmaster@buckscc.gov.uk immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached, and all copies must be deleted immediately. Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses, any attachments to this may nevertheless contain viruses which our anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Buckinghamshire County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this e- mail. All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation. The views expressed in this are not necessarily those of Buckinghamshire County Council unless explicitly stated. This footnote also confirms that this has been swept for content and for the presence of computer viruses. 1

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