W15.3
Object
Minerals and Waste Local Plan: Pre-Submission Publication
Representation ID: 99285
Received: 14/12/2022
Respondent: Anglian Water
Legally compliant? Not specified
Sound? No
Duty to co-operate? Not specified
The Local Plan is unsound because Policy WP14 is not positively prepared in terms of achieving sustainable development or justified given reasonable alternatives.
Paragraphs W15.2 and 15.3: We are disappointed that these paragraphs infer that there is no information relating to planned improvements at Whitlingham WRC, even though information was provided in our submission to the Preferred Options consultation. Through our PR19 Business Plan we identified investment to extend our plant at Whitlingham to cater for growth and increased capacity to cater for the additional sludges from our water recycling centres as a result of higher environmental quality regulations. This will provide sufficient capacity to deal with the impacts of regional growth and for increased sludge loads received from other WRCs affected by the WINEP (Water Industry National Environment Programme) phosphate reduction programmes as they are delivered through AMP7. This investment strategy is based on a longer-term plan and the knowledge that further staged investment will be needed in AMP8 and AMP9 to keep ahead of the growth projections across the Anglian region and to respond to changes in environmental legislation.
Our draft Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) was published for consultation earlier in the summer and we are now reviewing the responses with a view to publish the final version in 2023. The DWMP will support the development of our Long- Term Delivery Strategy (LTDS) and our business plan for the 2024 Price Review (PR24).
The draft DWMP identifies Whitlingham WRC as a catchment where there is already partnership working. The medium-term strategy for the Whitlingham water recycling catchment is attenuation with a longer-term strategy to 2050 of surface water removal, a new permit, new process streams, and infiltration removal.
We strongly suggest that the text is revised to ensure that it accurately signposts the relevant plans and strategies prepared by Anglian Water that inform our investments for Whitlingham WRC, so that the Local Plan is referencing the correct information and decision makers can access the this information through the lifespan of the plan, as our own plans are updated every 5 years to take account of changes to growth projections, regulatory and legislative changes, and environmental implications. This ensures that we can plan effectively and invest where it is needed.
We strongly suggest that the text is revised to ensure that it accurately signposts the relevant plans and strategies prepared by Anglian Water that inform our investments for Whitlingham WRC, so that the Local Plan is referencing the correct information and decision makers can access the this information through the lifespan of the plan, as our own plans are updated every 5 years to take account of changes to growth projections, regulatory and legislative changes, and environmental implications. This ensures that we can plan effectively and invest where it is needed.