You are invited on the AGM of the Coppies Grove Residents Association on 20.00pm on 24th August, 2015. The meeting will be held in the Royal British Legion Club in Friern Barnet Road, N11 3DP. Shameless Cllr Rutter strikes again! Some of us have received her new leaflet which is full of childish lies that would amuse us if they were not dangerous for our community. We have our facebook group link below so the ones that have not received it can see it as difficult to attach here. Please, let me make a few points and you can decide for yourselves Lie no 1: the land cannot be used for anything else besides a waste depot: In the planning application Abbotts depot land is not officially classified as anything. Fantastic for Cllr Rutter to decide for us without considering us residents. 2) Cllr Rutter is happy to announce that due to her efforts the traffic will be reduced: The traffic survey commissioned by Barnet Council and cost GBP 4122 public money was so unprofessional and bad that was Council officers did not include it in the planning application. We are attaching the Residents Against Abbots Depot objection to the planning application at the bottom of this email. The objection is commenting on planning documents and again you can make up your minds about the increase in traffic. 3) Cllr Rutter is happy to announce that we will have clean waste in our doorstep as she is looking after the environment and all the lorries that are coming in our area are new. The fact that every waste lorry will ONLY be washed twice a month and the shed where ALL the rubbish will be dumped on the floor will be swept with a broom (!) daily evades her. She does not care anyway. As she said on March 7th she would not live near the waste. No mention on noise pollution and loss of 'irreplaceable trees' 4) Cllr Rutter has ensure an extension on the planning application deadline: Yet another lie: Winters is not ready to leave yet therefore, Winters got an extention to stay by the council for another month hence the extension on the planning application. NOT TO mention the fact that Mr Dillon - who is the planning officer in Barnet Council and has been very helpful to us, has mentioned more than once that ALL planning comments will be taken into consideration UNTIL the planning committee in September. RAAD planning objection: I cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to object to the council. Please feel free to copy and paste from our application if you want or write your own planning objections. All the information on how and where you can object are below the RAAD objection: If you want to see any of the attached documents mentioned in the objection please email barnetraad@gmail.com and we will be happy to send them to you: INTRODUCTION Firstly, a RAAD representative wishes to address the planning committee. Residents Again Abbots Depot Committee (RAAD) was formed in February 2015 after the Brunswick Part Ward residents ‘opened’ their Christmas present received by London Borough of Barnet to relocate the Mill Hill waste depot in their ward. The decision was taken on 16th December 2014 without ANY PRIOR consultation with the residents. Our area is heavily populated with more than 10 schools and nurseries in the immediate vicinity and traffic and pollution problems already. We believe that the fact that the Brunswick Park ward has 52% ethnic minority residents of middle to lower income and education and no financial and political power was a catalyst in that decision as opposed to 60%+ white British of higher income that live in the other LBB wards.(ONS, 2011) Communication sent out to the residents by LBB after the decision has been taken is misleading and inadequate. The processes that will take place in the proposed site are not accurately described to the residents, there is no social impact survey as promised by Cllr Cornelius in January’s Coppies Grove Residents Association meeting on how the waste will affect the community (LBB, FOI req. ref: 1770697 ) and LBB FOI req ref: ref: 1759396 tells us that there is no proof of distribution of the leaflet informing residents about the pre application consultation. RAAD has been actively informing the residents via the two change.org petitions: https://www.change.org/p/immediate-resignation-of-cllr-lisa-rutter-for-voting-yes-towards-the-abbots-depot-we-the-undersigned-declare-ourselves-to-have-no-confidence-in-cllr-lisa-rutter-in-saying-no-to-the-abbots-waste-depot (1050 online and 490 manual signatures to 21st July 2015) https://www.change.org/p/barnet-council-stop-the-proposed-waste-recycling-depot-at-abbots-depot-oakleigh-road-south (61 online and 20 manual signatures to 21st July 2015) facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1409433536029416/ twitter account: @NOwastedeptN11 list of emails, 4X leaflets distributed in the whole ward and along Oakleigh road North and South and 3Xpublic meetings with residents and a fundraising event. RAAD has also submitted questions to LBB council meetings and forums. It also looks like LBB’s deal to purchase the Abbotts depot land and Winters lease has a greater stench than the waste they are proposing to bring to our neighborhood with a lot of public money being involved and no transparency: https://www.change.org/p/barnet-council-stop-the-proposed-waste-recycling-depot-at-abbots-depot-oakleigh-road-south/u/11444548 http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/we-do-not-know-what-else-we-did-not-and.html RAAD is objecting this planning application: 1) Inappropriate use of the area: • The area is densely populated- which is not the case with the current Mill Hill depot (email by Ralph Haynes admitting so attached- document 1-yellow highlight). Other sites considered by LBB for the relocation cited residential complaints that would hinder the application process. (document 2 – question 14) (Planning statement 2.2) Sites like Scratchwood were not even considered as Conservative councilors refused to have the waste in their ward. • Oakleigh rd South and North is too narrow at places for two buses to pass each other let alone refuse tracks and bigger lorries. (HGVs) • More than 10 schools and nurseries in the immediate vicinity. Most parents use Oakleigh rd North and South to take kids to and fro schools. • Abbotts depot has no formal land designation and is brownfield. Currently the owners of the land have allowed Winters Haulage to use if for their waste operations on an informal basis as long as they could use the Winters skips for free for their construction business. If LBB knew about it why they failed to monitor the Winter’s activity? (Andrew Travers CEO of LBB email 9th July, document 3-yellow highlight) (Planning statement 4.1) • Opposite the only recreation park in the area used by children and families all the time • LBB is talking about achieving major efficiencies but there is no actual report talking current LBB numbers and documented future projected ones. Can you please publish the relevant document within the planning application? (Planning statement 2.3) • Immediate neighbors to the site have not been consulted at ALL prior to the 16th December decision. (Planning statement 3.2, 3.3) • The cost of buying the Abbots depot, lease of Winters (paying a company that was already leaving to leave is a first worldwide) and relocation is financially unsustainable given that TFL has confirmed that they have agreed for LBB to use it until 2025- an investment of more than 15m of public money for less than 10 years? (Document 4) (planning statement 4.9 and dates up to 2055 mentioned in various application documents). 2) Effect on traffic, access and parking and air pollution LBB has based its campaign of bringing the waste to our neighborhood on the fact that they will reduce traffic. The assumption is far from true. The relocation will increase traffic and air pollution in our area, Attached is the traffic survey commissioned by LBB as it has not been possible to locate within the Traffic Management Plan as advised by LBB officers. Please note: the survey is inadequate with no distinction between GBN and Winters lorries (sharing same entrance) and a generic count of vehicles over 3.5 tonnes in and out of the site and no count of vehicles on the road. (doc5LBBtrafic survey) In TMP, LBB indicates in 2.7 that the area is already heavily trafficked and in 2.11 that traffic surveys indicates that 8-9% of traffic is HGV. Again no distinction between public transport and commercial vehicles. There is no actual traffic survey in any of the application documents so would like to see the one mentioned. RAAD have conducted their own traffic survey counting all traffic on the road outside the entrance of Abbots site as well as Winters, GBN and other HGVs entering and leaving the premises. There is a total of 9568 vehicle movements with aprox 492 HGV movements in total. That is only 4.7% of the total vehicle movements and for any sane person that would be an indication that the Oakleigh rd South and North are NOT suitable for HGV movements. In addition there are aprox 315 bus journeys per day (6am-6pm) (RAAD traffic survey attached doc6) There is a lot of confusion on what will be relocating to Abbotts as various documents contradict each other and the numbers in the application contradict the number we were given by Council officers. In Planning Statement LBB is mentioning 70 refuse tracks. Yet in table 4 of traffic management plan we only see 46 collection and support vehicle fleet. If this is the real number then: In table 4, there are inconsistencies in the vehicle movements and what we were told by Ralph Haynes and Head of Waste recycling Jason Armitage during our visit in Mill Hill waste depot in April 16th 2015: 46 departures between 6am-7am The 11 recycling lorries do 2 trips in and out of waste depot per day = 44 vehicle movements. On occasions like Christmas they might have to do 3 trips. Remaining 35 vehicles in and out once daily = 70 vehicle movements 2 X 36 tonne lorries X 6 trips daily = 12 vehicle movements 1 X 32 food waste vehicle X 2 trips daily =4 vehicle movements Also table 4 does not include trade rounds, LBB skips, bin delivery and collection, RA and flats and Green waste. Jason Armitage concluded that it would be aprox 90 vehicle movements in and 90 vehicle movements in daily =180 vehicle movements. Additional to that we have the highway maintenance HGVs, Winter Gritters, Green waste, supervisors arriving and departing, public service vans, MOT vehicles, delivery of supplies, refueling of two fuel tanks and of course ALL LBB vehicles to re- fuel, wash and be serviced within the premises and private cars. All these are not calculated in table 4. Also, note that from our observation all lorries need to warm the engine for 5-10 minutes. That is additional pollution near one of the most polluted roads in Europe: North Circular. There is also the staff cars arriving and departing: currently Winters Haulage has aprox 40 staff, most of which arrive on site on foot as observed by RAAD member during our survey. Mill Hill will be relocating 204 staff. According to the planning application documents more than 70% use own car or car share to get to work. That is additional pollution and traffic on a daily basis. Furthermore according to the TMP there is only 70 parking spaces for staff parking. Does that mean that the rest 70 private cars will be parked in the nearby roads making the resident’s live’s even more unbearable? Also, the number of parking spaces for the council fleet does not correspond to the number LBB has given in the planning application. Will the rest of the HGV park in the surrounding streets? If the number of waste and refuge LBB vehicles is 70 then the above numbers and CO2 emissions will increase by 80% at least from the current numbers. 3) Effect on nature conservation and loss of trees Bats and owls have been detected by a survey commissioned by RAAD. The survey commissioned by the council and is submitted in the planning application is not complete yet- showing how the council is desperate to complete the transaction, approve the planning application they submitted to themselves and indicating further that they do not care about the environment and residents. Bats are protected species, valuable to our eco system and are sensitive to light and noise pollution as well as diesel fumes. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2878488/Tiny-particles-diesel-engine-fumes-double-risk-autism-unborn-babies.html http://www.batsandlighting.co.uk/ http://www.lbp.org.uk/downloads/Publications/Management/lighting_and_bats.pdf http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2014/11/bats-change-their-tune-cope-human-noise-pollution http://jeb.biologists.org/content/211/19/3174.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1469784/) LBB has not given the appropriate consideration on such a sensitive to our health and environment matter and we are not confident at all that they will ensure they will take necessary precautions to protect them. LBB is also proposing- via the various documents to cut down 15 mature trees, 2 of which are described by LBB officers in the planning application as ‘irreplaceable’ as the entrance needs to widen to accommodate the LBB HGVs. Why? 4) Noise, light, vermin and disturbance resulting from a use We object to LBBs plan to relocate the waste depot in our area as it is an ill thought plan: VERMIN: The relocation will intensify the vermin problem the heavily residential area has already as Ralph Haynes admits in his email attached (Doc 1, green highlight). According to what we were told during our visit in the Mill Hill site and is also noted in the application, the bulking facility is swept daily with a broom (!) and the vehicles washed twice a month. No mention of the bulking facility being washed with water and of course no mention of the dirty vehicles parked less than 15 mts from Coppies Grove flats and houses attracting more vermin and intensifying the problem they already have. SMELL: in the same email Ralph Haynes is mentioning that there will be smell –during the food waste operations. (doc 1 blue highlight) What everyone forgets to mention is that during the bulking from around 10ish until the end of shift, lorries arrive and leave all the time. Does that mean that the doors of the bulking facility will be closing and opening all the time or does it mean they will be left open so waste, noise and smell are free to roam above the neighborhood as the building is situated well above the residential area? NOISE: in the same email (doc 1 purple highlight). The same comment as above about the bulking facility and the noise of the lorries coming in and our of the building and area, tipping the waste on the floor and the noise from that, the JCB bulking the waste in the 40 ton lorries. Adding to that noise: the 46-70 (depending on which document in the application one reads) starting and warming their engines at 6am daily, the 120 private cars arriving and departing every day from 5.45am -6pm, LBB skip services, vans and smaller lorries, all council vehicles refueling, suppliers, refueling lorries that we currently do not have. FIRE: There is a mention of the fire department getting involved in the planning application but no appraisal or report on it: Given that there will be 70000 tonnes of fuel stored as well as fuel for the rest of the council fleet (25000 tonnes) near an electricity and water pumping stations with dry recyclables and timber yard merchants within 50 mts, a petrol station within 100 mts in a heavily residential area and a nursery adjacent to the proposed depot why there is no report on potential fire? There is no report on measures that need to be taken in order to prevent such an incident either. We need to know who will be taking responsibility in the event of a fire and lives being lost. Is it the cllrs that have signed and approves the planning application? We need to know. LIGHT: The operating hours of the site are stated as 5.45am-6pm on LBBs website. That means that lights will be on in the early hours of the morning until after 6pm and when the last car will leave the premises. Some lights will be on during the night for protection of the site and Mr Dillon –during my visit to NLBP informed me that during winter the winter gritting and salt barn building will have the lights on 24/7 for operating purposes. That will particularly affect the Coppies Grove residential area as well as the houses directly opposite the proposed Depot. HEALTH HAZZARDS: In the application, it is mentioned that 30% of all traffic accidents are committed while the driver ‘is at work’. It is also indicated that 100% of all LBB vehicles exiting and entering the depot will drive on Oakleigh rd South or North. By increasing traffic on the road, LBB ensures that we will have more traffic accidents involving its council vehicles. In our correspondence starting 23rd April with LBB’s CEO Andrew Travers we have been insisting to know what are the measures the council has taken to ensure accessibility of police, fire and ambulances in case of emergency, given that Oakleigh rd is too narrow at places for 2 buses to pass each other. (doc 7, attached) Our email is yet to be answered and the issue has not been addressed AT ALL in the MTP. By increasing traffic, LBB ensures that CO2 emissions will be increased in our already heavily polluted area. That will affect the health of the residents in the long and short run (heart problems, asthma, increased risk of cancer). North Circular is also one of the most polluted areas in Europe. CONCLUSION: RAAD objects to the waste recycling depot relocating in Abbotts Depot Oakleigh road South, N11 as the area is unsuitable, heavily populated with more than 10 schools and nurseries in the immediate vicinity. RAAD objects to the waste recycling depot relocating in Abbotts Depot, Oakleigh rd South as it will negatively impact the lives of the residents by destroying their every day life with noise, light and air pollution and vermin. RAAD objects to the waste recycling depot relocating in Abbotts Depot, Oakleigh rd South it is an ill thought plan that will increase the risk of traffic accidents for our children and our families in a road that access for emergency vehicles is not at all times possible, increase the risk of fire and ill health and destroy our precious environment. Document 8 attached is a small video of the area as ALL the council pics fail to show how close the proposed waste depot is to our houses. Stamo and 1500+ Brunswick Park Ward Residents RAAD Object to the planning application until 30th August, though Barnet council officers have assured us that ALL planning objections until the planning committee in September 7th will be included. Planning application: FIND IT IN: https://publicaccess.barnet.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage or hard copy in reception of North London Business Park (box under reception desk) Andrew Dillon Tel: 020 8359 4729 Object online in: https://publicaccess.barnet.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=NQPCE7JI09000 Object by email to: planning.enquiry@barnet.gov.uk, andrew.dillon@barnet.gov.uk and Cllrs on planning committee: cllr.m.cohen@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.w.prentice@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.m.braun@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.c.farrier@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.e.greenspan@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.b.rawlings@barnet.gov.uk, Cllr.T.Roberts@Barnet.gov.uk cllr.a.slocombe@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.m.shooter@barnet.gov.uk cllr.j.tierney@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.r.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk cllr.a.hutton@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.d.kay@barnet.gov.uk cllr.s.khatri@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.g.rozenberg@barnet.gov.uk cllr.l.williams@barnet.gov.uk, cllr.s.sowerby@barnet.gov.uk Object in writting: Planning, c/o Andrew Dillon, Development Management & Building Control Service Building 4, North London Business Park (NLBP), Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP Cllrs on Planning committee: Melvin Cohen, Wendy Prentice, Maureen Brown, Eva Greenspan, Mark Shooter, Richard Cornelius, Sury Khatri, Gabriel Rozenberg, Stephen Sowerby: c/o Conservative Group Members Room, Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, Hendon, NW4 4BG Claire Farrier, Barry Rawlings, Tim Roberts,Agnes Slocombe, Jim Tierney, Anne Hutton, Devra Kay, Laurie Williams: C/o Labour Group Members Room , Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London, NW4 4BG PLEASE NOTE: it only takes one conservative councillor to vote against the relocation to get rid of the waste. Please write to your local councillor separately and ask them to vote against the relocation. Cllr Sowerby is the Cllr to Oakleigh, where the residents will be directly affected by the traffic. smell and noise... It is up to us to stop it so pleas take a few moments to put your objections in and write to your councillor. Points you can object on: -Proximity to residential - Increase in traffic/ parking problems - Air pollution -Noise -Loss of light or light pollution - Vermin -Fire and Health hazards -Overlooking and loss of privacy - Whether use of area is appropriate - Damage to the environment IN ALL YOUR COMMUNICATION PLEASE : a) use reference 15/04005/FUL b) c/c barnetraad@gmail.com so we can follow up IF YOU NEED HELP ON OBJECTING PLEASE E_MAIL:barnetraad@gmail.com (ResidentsAgainst Abbots Depot)