Proposed Clinical Waste Incinerator Appeal Response

Hixon Parish Council response to appeal against Non-Determination of Staffordshire County Council planning application SCC/24/0064/Full-ES: proposed Clinical Waste Treatment Facility at Church Lane, Hixon.

Appeal Ref: APP/D3450/W/25/3371472

https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/ViewCase.aspx?CaseID=3371472&CoID=0

Hixon Parish Council supports the recommendation by Staffordshire County Council Planning officers to refuse planning permission for a Clinical Waste Treatment Facility at Church Lane, Hixon. Planning ref: SCC/24/0064/Full-ES.

Hixon Parish Council also endorses the unanimous decision of the Staffordshire County Council Waste Planning Committee to agree the officer recommendation to refuse the application.

Hixon Parish Council reinforces its previous reasons to oppose the planning application, submitted via the planning portal to Staffordshire County Council in September 2024. The Parish Council trusts the Inspector will take these into account when considering the Appeal.

Since September 2024, it has become even more clear that the proposed Clinical Waste Incinerator Plant in Hixon is an unacceptable location for such a potentially hazardous operation and so close to vulnerable receptors. The applicant/agent has not provided any evidence to justify the choice of the location in Hixon or demonstrated any local need for such a facility. No other potential sites have been considered and it has not been proven that Hixon is the ‘right place.’

Indeed, the location of the proposed 15m high flue would be just 80m from the playing fields serving St. Peter’s Primary School. St. Peter’s Primary School currently has 215 pupils under the age of eleven and is situated East of the application site and so subject to the prevailing winds from the West. The majority of domestic properties in Hixon are also to the East of the application site, with the topography of the landscape rising from West to East.

This proposal conflicts directly with the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Joint Waste Local Plan (2010–2026), particularly Policy 2.3, which sets out the siting and locational criteria for new waste management facilities. The Hixon site fails these criteria, making it the wrong location at the wrong time for this type of hazardous development.

Treating infectious and hazardous clinical waste, even via high temperature incineration, can produce emissions that are harmful to the health of persons living or working in close proximity (or even further afield) to the source. There are also significant dangers to public health posed by stored infectious waste prior to processing. To presume that such a challenging process could operate safely and efficiently 24 hours of the day and 365 days of the year would be a dangerous presumption.

For all of the above reasons, Hixon Parish Council, on behalf of the local Hixon community, request Appeal Ref: APP/D3450/W/25/3371472 is dismissed.

Cllr Brendan McKeown

Chair, Hixon Parish Council