CLOSED : Proposed alteration to the Lothian and Borders Area
Waste Plan
SEPA invite you to respond to a Consultation on the Lothian and
Borders Area Waste Plan. The Area Waste Plan (2003) was developed
by the Waste Strategy Area Group which comprises of the five Local
Authorities in the area, the Waste Industry, the Community Sector
and Non-Governmental Organisations. The Area Waste Plan sets out
the best option for sustainable waste management in the Lothian and
Borders area. This includes Waste Prevention, Recycling,
Composting, Residual Waste Treatment and Disposal to landfill. The
best option could potentially evolve over time due to better
availability of waste data, advances in waste treatment
technologies, legislation requiring us to divert waste from
landfill and emerging policies for higher recycling and composting
targets.
The Local Authorities in the Lothian and Borders area have been
working together on proposals for the management of waste. It is
these proposals and their potential impacts that we would like your
views on. The proposals have been developed to look at increasing
recycling and composting of municipal waste along with proposals
for the management of the waste that remains after we recycle and
compost as much as practicably possible. On review of the municipal
waste management proposals from the Lothian and Borders Local
Authorities, the Waste Strategy Area Group noted that the options
being put forward could potentially result in a change to the
published Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) as set out
in Chapter 3 of the Area Waste Plan. A BPEO Review has, therefore,
been carried out to ensure that any proposals, submitted to the
Scottish Executive for funding, take into account all
environmental, social and economic impacts and represent the Best
Option for the Lothian and Borders. Any change to a plan or
programme in Scotland requires Strategic Environmental Assessment
(SEA) as per the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes
(Scotland) Regulations 2004. The BPEO Review and the Strategic
Environmental Assessment have, therefore, been carried out in
parallel and the proposed options are assessed in both the SEA
Environmental Report and the BPEO review.
SEPA is the responsible authority in the SEA and BPEO Review
processes on behalf of the Waste Strategy Area Group. In
maintaining the spirit of open and transparent decision making and
a statutory requirement to consult with local stakeholders under
the SEA Regulations, a public consultation is being held to seek
views on the findings of the SEA and BPEO Review. Once local
stakeholder views have been received and considered by the Waste
Strategy Area Group, the revised Section 3 of the Area Waste Plan
will be published on the SEPA web site.
We would welcome your views and a number of questions have been
set out in the Consultation documents. As well as addressing these
questions, please include any other comments which you feel would
support the decision making process to identify the best option for
municipal waste in the Lothian and Borders. Where possible, it
would be beneficial to provide supporting evidence to any
representations, especially in relation to the assessment scorings.
The Consultation, which is comprised of a BPEO Review Paper, SEA
Environmental Report and the proposed alteration to Section 3 of
the Lothian and Borders Area Waste Plan can be viewed through the
links below:
If you are having problems downloading these documents, hard
copies are available at the SEPA offices in Edinburgh and
Galashiels.
Please Note: This consultation
CLOSED on 22nd August 2007