North London councils to start work on new Waste Plan

The new NLWP will be drawn up by Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest Councils and will set out how much waste the seven boroughs need to process, explain how planning applications for waste facilities in the boroughs will be decided and identify enough sites for waste management.

A planning inspector concluded in a report in August that the existing plan drawn up by the councils was not legally compliant as it did not comply with the duty to co-operate under the Localism Act.

"There has not been constructive, active and ongoing engagement during the NLWP’s preparation between the North London Councils and the planning authorities to which significant quantities of waste are exported," the report said.

“We have listened to the decision of the planning inspector and while we are disappointed with his decision, we believe the most appropriate way forward is to not adopt the current plan and start work on a new one as early as possible in the New Year," said a spokesperson for the NLWP in a statement.

“We need to deal with more of our own rubbish and we’re determined to produce a plan that meets the needs of North London and identifies how the waste management facilities we need can be provided," the spokesperson said.

“We’ll take the information we gathered in producing the original plan and use that as the basis for the new version, while taking into account the comments made by the planning inspector, so the work we’ve done to date will not be wasted. It's worth bearing in mind that the original plan was produced before the duty to co-operate was introduced,” the spokesperson said.

The councils said that to formally end the examination of the old NLWP they will now ask the inspector to write his report which will recommend that the plan is not adopted and to start on a new version of the plan. This will formally call a halt to the old plan and enable work to start on the new plan.