Environmental Impact Assessment Summary

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT SUMMARY. PROPOSED CONTINUATION OF LANDFILL ON SITE OFF STONEY MOUNTAIN ROAD, EAST FOXDALE, for DC SKIPS LTD

The proposal is to extend the application PA07/806/B to continue to landfill inert materials to lower levels than stated in that approval, but not yet achieved. There is space to landfill in the region of 27,000 Cu.M over an area of 1.4 hectares to achieve the revised levels, which will take about five years to complete based on the throughput records from the operator's Waste Transfer Station. This will be made up of approximately 26,000 Cu.M of inert materials, covered by a 5cm layer of topsoil already stockpiled on site (<700 Cu.M.) for this purpose, which will be spread as each phase is completed in accordance with the recommendations from the Wildlife Trust. (see copy attached) Surplus soil from the >3,000 Cu.M. already stockpiled on site will be made available for sale.

The site is less than one mile from the headquarters and maintenance facility of the waste collection operator, DCS Ltd. (formerly Dave Crowe Plant Hire), trading as DC Skips, which makes it an ideal location to landfill with minimum travel involved and enables staff to work on either site as workload demands.

The inert waste is a major bi-product of the general waste from hired skips collected by DC Skips Ltd and brought to the Company's licensed Waste Transfer Station at Billy Goat Park, Stoney Mountain Road, almost opposite the landfill site. Enclosed with this application is a flow-chart illustrating the Waste Stream Paths after sorting at the Waste Transfer Station, to the points of Final Disposal. Most of the waste streams (non-inert) from the Waste Transfer Station go direct to their final destination. The inert waste is transferred to the landfill site where further fine screening is carried out to ensure that all non-inert is removed and construction material unsuitable for recycling is deposited in the landfill site.

The site will only be operated during daylight hours between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday and 8am and 1pm Saturday. No lighting will be installed or used on the site. There are no utility services on the site as none are required, Dust suppression is carried out using water from a bowser filled at the Waste Transfer Station as required.

During the seven-year period of operations under the previous approval, lapsed in error due to an oversight, there have been no records of any complaints from neighbours, nor from environmental officers.

The following table summarises the impact, actual and possible, of the site and its activities on its surroundings

Type of Impact	Effect of Impact	Direct Indirect Cumulative	Short term Long term Temporary Permanent	Neutral Positive Negative	Impact Level Negligible Low, Medium High
Impact on residential amenity in terms of visual, dust, noise, vibration as result of traffic generated.	Visual: This site is not visible from Stoney Mountain Road. The site is located 300m South of Stoney Mountain Road and has been an existing landfill site, licensed for inert waste disposal, since 2000. Only two residential properties exist within 400m of the processing plant. A small number of other heavy commercial operations already exist within 500m of the proposed recycling site. Dust will be managed by water bowser spray, but is unlikely to be carried to any other property. Noise is only likely during daylight operating hours, but not exceeding 55 Db(A) beyond site boundaries and monitored by the operator and Environmental Health Dept. Vibration from traffic will be un-changed as all HGV's are already based at DC Skips main site within 600 m of proposed site, so will not have to travel to other sites to deliver materials for landfill. Every DC Skips Ltd vehicle returns to base daily so there will be no change to traffic generation.	Indirect Cumulative together with other adjacent site processes.	Long term The recycling operation will, by necessity, reduce in size as the landfill restoration completes, eventually eliminating the recycling on this site.	Positive due to the shorter travel distance of HGV's if DCS site is used, passing only two residential properties on the journey, reducing the Carbon footprint of DC Skips.	Negligible

DC SKIPS LTD, LANDFILL SITE, SOUTH OF STONEY MOUNTAIN ROAD, EAST FOXDALE.

Planning Statement

Renewal of planning consent to continue inert landfill on 1.4 hectare site, to revised lower levels. (PA/07/00806/B refers - recently lapsed)

1.1 The primary use of the subject site since 2000 has been to provide additional private landfill capacity for the Island to absorb only the inert waste stream permitted by DC Skips Ltd Waste Disposal License 04/2003/V3, thereby extending the life of other publicly-accessible landfill sites. This waste is generated only from collection of skips from the public and is initially separated from other waste at the Company’s waste transfer station nearby, also on Stoney Mountain Road. This landfill operation consists mainly of construction waste, although other inert types are permitted by the above license. A flow-chart showing the origin, processing and final disposal of the permitted wastes is attached.

1.2 In deciding whether or not to approve continuation of landfill on this site planners will need to consider, amongst other things, why the landfill material is not taken to other approved landfill sites. The reasoning behind this includes the following factors:

a) the subject site is close to the approved waste transfer station where all waste collected by the Company is received, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the Company when dealing with the inert waste, by reduced mileage and maintenance on vehicles,

b) the subject site has been approved as a landfill site and has not yet achieved the final levels previously permitted. New, lower levels have been suggested – see para.1.4. To achieve these levels there is still space for approximately 27,000 Cu.M to be spread over an area of 14,000 square metres (1.4 hectares). This equates to approximately 5200 tonnes per year or 5 to 10 vehicle movements per working day. The material will be made up of approximately 26,000 Cu.M of inert materials, covered by a 5cm layer of topsoil (<700 Cu.M.) already stockpiled on site for this purpose, which will be spread as each area is completed in accordance with the recommendations from the Manx Wildlife Trust, to create a calcareous grassland suitable for grazing. There are >3000 Cu.M. of topsoil on site with surplus being made available for sale.

c) other approved disposal sites cease daily operations earlier than DC Skips landfill site and on some days do not open at all. To use other sites, and allowing for travel time, would significantly reduce the operating hours of DC Skips Waste Transfer Station, creating a backlog of incoming waste to sort, increasing costs and carbon footprint.

d) the close proximity of the subject site to the Waste Transfer Station allows more flexibility of staff when either site demands and, consequently, separate personnel welfare facilities are not required on this site. No members of the public are permitted on this site.

e) the subject site is already owned by Mr David Crowe, managing Director of DC Skips Ltd, so no charges are incurred to landfill this waste.

1.3 Should planning approval be given for the landfill, there will be a programme of progressive withdrawal from the site until the landfill area is filled and the site returned to grassland and wild-life habitat, using the advice obtained from the Manx Wild-life Trust for land preparation. (see copy attached)

1.4 The proposed sequence of progressively filling the site with inert materials is shown on the attached plan, with the intention to direct the filling to achieve a natural profile for woodland and wild-life habitat landscape. These levels will be set out on the site with visual marker posts to assist site operatives and licensing observers to measure progress and compliance. Using throughput records from the Waste Transfer Station it is estimated that the landfill operation will take about five years to achieve the proposed profile levels, which are lower than the previous approval after taking advice from the Planning Department for a more natural land profile. After the site has been fully restored the landfill materials from DC Skips Waste Transfer Station will need to be taken to other approved sites.

1.5 Provision is made for the manoeuvring of vehicles within the site; together with a covered quarantine skip should any materials be found during unloading that should not be landfilled.

1.6 The site will only be operated during daylight hours between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday and 8am and 1pm Saturday. No lighting will be installed or used on the site. There are no permanent utility services on this site. Water for dust suppression is drawn from a portable bowser, filled at the Waste Transfer Station when required.

1.7 Existing provision for weekly cleaning of filters to ensure no pollution enters the nearby watercourse will be maintained during the landfill operations.

The various policies of the Strategic Plan 2007 have been individually considered and their relevance to this application indicated in the table below. Note that where applicable, policy requirements are compliant. Brief justifications are stated where relevant.

Policy type	Policy No.	n/a	Complies	Notes
Strategic	1		Yes
	2	n/a		Rural location essential
	3	n/a		Policy applies to towns & villages
	4		Yes
	5	n/a		Policy applies to new development
	6	n/a		Not in 'major' category
	7		Yes	Previously approved for same use
	8	n/a		Not Tourist related
	9	n/a		Excluded by location
	10		Yes	Employs local labour force
	11	n/a		Not related to housing
	12	n/a		Not related to housing

Spatial			Yes	Long standing local activity in area
General	1		Yes
	2		Yes
	3		Yes	See (e) and (g) of policy requirements
	4	n/a		Can be controlled by conditions
	5	n/a
	6	n/a		Policy applies to towns & villages
	7	n/a		Policy applies to towns & villages
	8		Yes	No advertising display
	9	n/a		Not accessible to public
Environment	1	n/a		Site use approved prior to SP2007
	2		Yes	Not designated AHVL
	3		Yes	No woodland affected
	4		Yes	Species and habitats not affected
	5		Yes	Species and habitats not affected
Policy type	Policy No.		Complies	Notes
Environment	6	n/a		Not a Heritage Site
	7		Yes	Nearby watercourse protected
	8	n/a		No buildings of any sort on site
	9	n/a		Not a coastal location. No land erosion
	10	n/a		Not at risk of flooding
	11	n/a		Not a coastal location
	12	n/a		Not a coastal location
	13	n/a		Not at risk of flooding due to elevation
	14	n/a		Site and soils not within classifications
	15	n/a		Not agricultural or horticultural
	16	n/a		No buildings on site
	17	n/a		Not for horticultural use
	18	n/a		No retail activity on site
	19	n/a		No equestrian use
	20	n/a		No equestrian use
	21	n/a		No equestrian use
	22		Yes	Pollution, emissions etc controlled by WDL
	23		Yes	Summary of EIA enclosed
Environment	24		Yes	Brief EIA enclosed
	25	n/a		No pollution from inert materials.
	26	n/a		Not on or near contaminated land
	27	n/a		Not contaminated land
	28	n/a		No effect on ground stability.No buildings
	29	n/a		No public permitted on site
	30	n/a		No buildings on site
	31	n/a		No buildings on site
	32	n/a		No buildings on site
	33	n/a		No buildings on site
	34	n/a		No buildings on site
	35	n/a		Not a conservation area
	36	n/a		Not a conservation area
	37	n/a		No advertisements displayed
	38	n/a		No advertisements displayed
	39	n/a		No buildings on site

WASTE POLICY 1

	40	n/a		No Ancient Monuments on or near site
	41	n/a		No Ancient Monuments on or near site
	42	n/a		Not in a settlement
	43	n/a		Not in regeneration area.
Housing	ALL	n/a		No buildings on site
Business	1		Yes	Business expansion requires continuity
	2		Yes	Site employs local labour
	3		Yes	Land already zoned by prev. approval
	4	n/a		No buildings on site
	5		Yes	Heavy bulk product produced on site
	6	n/a		Site has no other Use potential
	7	n/a		Not an office
	8	n/a		Not an office
	9	n/a		Not a retail outlet
	10	n/a		Not a retail outlet
	11	n/a		Not tourism related
	12	n/a		Not tourism related
	13	n/a		Not tourism related
	14	n/a		Not tourism related
	15	n/a		Not tourism related
Recreation	ALL	n/a		No Recreational activities on site
Community	ALL	n/a		No Community activities on site
Transport	ALL	n/a		No change required to Transport network
Minerals	1	n/a		No mineral extraction or working involved
Energy	1	n/a		No energy provision involved
	2		Yes	Land protected 9m from overhead cables
	3	n/a		Not a Heritage site
	4	n/a		No energy provision involved
	5	n/a		No buildings on site

	1 (a)	Yes	Waste Management Policy defines need for landfill
	1 (b)	Yes	No unacceptable adverse impact on residents
	1 (c)		No adverse effect on the following:
	i	Yes	Landscapes, geology/geomorphology, or features of special interest or attraction
	ii	n/a	Ancient Monuments/settings (none near)
	iii	n/a	Registered Buildings or their settings, or features of architectural importance (none near)
	iv	n/a	Character or appearance of Conservation Areas (not near any Conservation area)
	v	n/a	Sites of archaeological interest (none near)
	vi	Yes	Sites containing inter/nationally important species
	vii	Yes	Land drainage and water courses
	viii	n/a	Woodland or timber resources (none near)
	ix	n/a	Designated National Heritage sites.(none near)
	1(d)	Yes	Acceptable for access and highway safety
	1(e)	Yes	Phased scheme of restoration and landscaping
	1(f)	Yes	No sterilisation of other mineral deposits
	1(g)	Yes	No unacceptable adverse impact on airport safety