Planning commmittee wants end to "Pebsham Pong"

CONCERNED members of Rother planning committee have voted to beef-up the council's response to East Sussex County Council over proposed changes at Southern Water's Pebsham wastewater treatment plant.

They are making it clear that they want an end to what's been termed "the Pebsham Pong."

East Sussex, as planning authority, had invited Rother's view on an application by plant operators Southern Water.

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Last Thursday's planning meeting voted to oppose the changes unless county can impose strict enforcement.

The application was to alter two planning conditions imposed by permission was give to build the wastewater treatment works.

These relate to odour control and to the importation to the site of liquid sewage sludge.

In place of the odour control condition, the applicants propose an alternative odour management plan.

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It is argued that the sewage plant's sludge recycling centre operates below capacity. Sludge is recycled at a number of Southern Water sites but if one particular plant is off line at any time sludge needs to be treated elsewhere.

Rother planning department received only one objection to the application. It said current restrictions on noise and odour needed to be enhanced rather than removed.

It said surveys had proved that odour from the plant accumulates some distance away. On some days readings at the Wyevale Garden Centre off Bexhill Road, St Leonards, were 50 times higher than those at the plant boundary.

The issue came before Rother planning committee as a consultation issue from the county council.

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In a summary, Rother officers reminded members of the complaints that have been made about odour from the plant and said that traffic conditions on Bexhill Road had not improved since the first permission was given.

The recommendation was to make no objection to the odour issue if the county council were wholly satisfied that proper control could be maintained or improved by imposition of a Section 106 Obligation and that the county took full account of representations made by Rother's senior environmental health officer.

The second recommendation was to oppose amendment to the importation of sludge from other sites "unless the terms of such amendment ensure that there would be no significant vehicular traffic to a from the site."

Summing-up the debate, Rother head of planning Frank Rallings said: "At the end of the day, NO odour should be affecting anyone. That is the whole point. That is what we are trying desperately to resolve."

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Cllr Martyn Forster, a ward councillor and a county councillor, said the local area had suffered for a long period from strong and persistent odours from the plant.

Southern had had problems with the plant, with its machinery and its design. They had been in dispute with the constructors.

They had been in receipt of an injunction from the county to put their house in order and stop the orders but had sought a judicial review in the High Court which had resulted in a six-month stay.

Cllr Brian Kentfield urged members to seek answers from the county couched in "plain English."

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Committee chairman Cllr Nick Ramus said that when Southern was seeking planning permission for the plant, he and members had been given a conducted tour of its Shoreham plant.

No odours escaped from this and they were assured that this would be the case at Pebsham.