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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 on request by emailing us. Hard copies are also available at the SEPA offices in Edinburgh and Galashiels.
The consultation period is running from Wednesday 4th July to Wednesday 22nd August.
Please send your consultation response to:
FREEPOST
Lothian and Borders AWP Consultation
SEPA Edinburgh Office
Clearwater House
Heriot Watt Research Park
Riccarton
Edinburgh. EH14 4AP
Or email us
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Rebecca Walker on 01738 448408
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