GREEN LIGHT FOR COMPOSTING FACILITY A composting site between Buckingham and Maids Moreton is set to expand despite local protests.


Bucks County Council on Tuesday agreed to the re-siting and expansion of the scheme at College Farm near the A422. The decision comes despite more than 200 letters of objection citing fears over odours and traffic movements. Cllr Malcolm Beck, a member of Maids Moreton Parish Council, which opposed the plans, said the hearing had failed to allay his concerns over the site. He said: "I am very disappointed by the decision and also amazed because there was so much opposition to it."


quote and picture: Buckingham Advertiser


COMPOSTING RULES, OK ? Some suggestions for ASHTAV from Ed Grimsdale


Are the protestors in Buckingham and Maids Moreton just another set of Nimbys? The writer was one of them and he’s been chastened by the experience of protest. He views composting facilities as another example of local authorities chasing government targets. Many councils must recycle a greater percentage of waste or risk government penalty.


Manna from heaven comes with the siren call from an industrial composting firm: “Help us to plan and build a bigger composting facility, and we will help you and other areas to meet tough recycling targets”


Buckingham’s facility is designed to take material not only from its own district, but also from the ever-bur- geoning Milton Keynes and from south Northants.


The Composting Association’s Code of Practice suggests that the “proximity principle” must apply to avoid excessive road-miles for loose, low-density material that is the feedstock for composting. This is another example of “small is beautiful”. In an ideal society, every householder would compost their own bio-degradable waste. Such a


spreads beyond pad pile too high no sills leaches to groundwater


non biodegradable boulders in mix


black bags


wonderful world is increasingly impractical in Britain where urban building densities are set to rise. But, the further away composting is done from the source of its material the less green it is. Targets may be met, but their purpose is denied.


To set up “cheap and cheerful” in- dustrial-sized composting facilities will blight and not enhance our lives.


For what features should ASHTAV members look when judging the merit of a


planning application for a composting facility?


Beware the firm that declares its facility will emit no smells. They all do so. The worst offenders allow non-vegetative matter to be processed. Look for screening area, probably a shed, where composting friendly material is manually separated from foreign objects: flesh that putrefies and emits “whiffs” and bin bags that will be blown from the composting piles only to decorate local trees with black lace.


A DISAPPOINTING COMPOSTING FACILITY


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