Yesterday, Monday November 25th, saw the end of the Welbeck Planning Enquiry, witnessed by Just Transition Wakefield and some local councillors.
Stuart Boothman, Chair of Just Transition Wakefield made the following statement on behalf of the group.
Just Transition Wakefield was deeply frustrated by the proceedings throughout the appeal. One side politicised their evidence with emotive language, the other seemed to minimise their evidence. Friday’s withdrawal of the council’s planning statement and refusal to give verbal evidence was the final insult.
We will not hear the outcome of the appeal for some months, as the Planning Inspector weighs up the evidence, its strengths and its obvious shortcomings. Meanwhile, we all sit and wait, wonder why we sat through the enquiry and where it leaves us.
If the appeal is upheld, we have a possible set of dates to cling to: December 2026 for an end to dumping; December 2028 for an end to landscaping and restoration; and December 2033 for an end to the so-called After Care Plan, which does not yet exist. December 2033 also happens to be the end of Welbeck Waste Management’s lease. We have to ask some key questions:
- What is there to prevent further applications for further extensions?
- Are the dates quoted actual deadlines or just targets?
- What protection is in place for the community who have already suffered 30 years of dumping on their doorstep?
- What happens in 2033 if it isn’t finished and the lease runs out?
If the appeal is rejected and the council win their case, there are even bigger questions.
- Where is the plan to restore the Welbeck site?
- How long will it take to restore?
- Who will pay for the restoration?
- What happens to an open landfill site while the Environment Agency spend two years thinking about it?
There are so many lessons to be learned. We will be seeking a meeting with the Council Leaders to ask the many serious questions about how we ended up here, but we also have to keep watching and scrutinising to make sure that the site is closed, is environmentally safe, and can in time become the haven for nature that we have long been promised.
However frustrating and dispiriting the enquiry was, we are proud that we, along with Paul Dainton from RATS, witnessed it to continue to try and hold people to account. This won’t be the end: this is just the latest chapter in the never ending saga of Welbeck – “the largest landfill site in Europe”.