The Planning Process

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. Why is Worcestershire County Council making the decision on this planning application rather than Wychavon District Council?
2. Who is submitting this application?
3. Is the County Council submitting this planning application to itself?
4. How will a decision on this application be made?
5. When will this application be decided?
6. Who are ERM?
7. Why does the Waste Planning Authority need the help of consultants on this planning application?
8. Will public opinions be included in the report that will be presented to the Planning and Regulatory Committee?
9. What else will be in the final report to the Planning and Regulatory Committee?
10. How can I get involved in this planning process?

Answers

1. Q. Why is Worcestershire County Council making the decision on this planning application rather than Wychavon District Council?
   A. The County Council and the district councils have different responsibilities in relation to planning matters. The County Council is the Waste Planning Authority for Worcestershire, so it must deal with all planning matters relating to waste management. Wychavon District Council will be consulted on this application as the proposed site is within its district council area. (Top of Page)
   
2. Q. Who is submitting this application?
   A. The application has been submitted by Mercia Waste Management.

   The company originally signed a 25 year joint contract with Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council in December 1998 under the Private Finance Initiative for an integrated waste management service to the two counties, to deliver sustainable management of municipal waste.

   Severn Waste Services is the 'public face' of municipal waste management in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, operating facilities for its sister company Mercia Waste Management. Severn Waste Services and Mercia Waste Management are jointly owned by Focsa Services (UK) Ltd and Urbaser Ltd. These organisations are, in turn, owned by two major Spanish conglomerates; FCC (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA) and ACS (Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA) respectively. (Top of Page)

3. Q. Is the County Council submitting this planning application to itself?
   A. The County Council and the district councils have different responsibilities in relation to planning matters. The County Council is the Waste Planning Authority for Worcestershire, so it must deal with all planning matters relating to waste management. Wychavon District Council will be consulted on this application as the proposed site is within its district council area. (Top of Page)

4. Q. How will a decision on this application be made?
   A. The Waste Planning Authority will consult widely on this application. Responses will be collated and a report written. This report and its associated recommendation will be presented to the County Planning and Regulatory Committee, which will make a decision on this application. (Top of Page)

5. Q. When will this application be decided?
   A. This application is accompanied by an Environmental Statement and regulations allow for a period of 16 weeks for a decision about such applications to be made. However, major and complex applications such as this often take longer than 16 weeks for a decision to be made.

   The Planning & Regulatory Committee meet at pre-determined dates throughout the year (see the Programme of Meetings for details).

   The County Council's planning officers will not present this application to the Planning and Regulatory Committee until and unless they are satisfied that all of the relevant information is available, to enable a balanced report and an informed recommendation to be presented.  (Top of Page)

6. Q. Who are ERM?
   A. Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is a planning and environmental consultancy acting on behalf of the Waste Planning Authority as the Case Officer for this application. For more information about ERM, visit http://www.erm.com/. (Top of Page)
   

7. Q. Why does the Waste Planning Authority need the help of consultants on this planning application?
   A. Worcestershire County Council has a small team of planning officers. The team normally deals with a variety of planning applications for mineral extraction, waste management and the County Council's own development needs for schools, libraries, park and ride schemes and other county infrastructure projects.

   To deal with the workload generated by the scale and complexity of this major application, the team requires additional specialist resources.

   The County Council considers that it would not be a cost-effective use of resources to permanently employ the necessary specialist staff to deal with this type of infrequent, complex application. Therefore, ERM have been employed to provide the specialist staff resources needed to process this planning application. (Top of Page)
   

8. Q. Will public opinions be included in the report that will be presented to the Planning & Regulatory Committee?
   A. Yes. All written submissions from members of the public will be referred to and included in the report made to the Planning and Regulatory Committee. (Top of Page)

9. Q. What else will be in the final report to the Planning & Regulatory Committee?
   A. The report will include:

   • All consultee responses
   • A summary of the main issues raised
   • All relevant planning policies and policy guidance
   • An analysis of the issues raised and a recommendation of the decision to be made by the Planning and Regulatory Committee.

   If the recommendation were to approve the application, the report would contain details of conditions and any legal agreements that the development would have to comply with. If the application were recommended for refusal, then refusal reasons would be set out in the report. (Top of Page)

10. Q. How can I get involved in this planning process?
    A. Once the formal planning application has been submitted and checked, it will be validated by the Waste Planning Authority. The Waste Planning Authority will then advertise the application via the local press and site notices. Anyone can submit written comments, known as 'representations'.

    Normally a period of 21 days is allowed for making such representations, however Worcestershire County Council has agreed to increase the length of the planning application consultation period.

    The council has listened to local people who asked for more time to go through the extensive details of the application before giving their views.

    The consultation period had originally been set for just over six weeks – already longer than the usual 21 days – and was due to end on Friday, July 2, but will now run until Friday, August 13.

    After validation and when the consultation process commences, the application and its associated documents will be available to view online via the County Council's Planning Applications web pages, which will also provide details of how to make representations. (Top of Page)