New Waste Processing Centre and Asylum Rd

Things are coming to a head with the plans for a new "integrated waste management facility" on the Old Kent Road. The plans for the changes to road layout went to Planning Committee last week (and were rejected) and the main plans for the centre itself should be coming to committee within the next month or two.

I'm critical of many things that Southwark Council are doing (I am in opposition afterall), but I do support these plans for a new waste processing plant which will allow us to raise our recycling rate from the current 20% up to 50% and slash the amount of our waste going to landfill.

Of course it's not all good. There are some legitimate concerns about the local impact of the new centre. The most likely impact on the area I represent is an increase in traffic on Asylum Rd as the entrance to the centre will be just about opposite Kwik Fit. The changes to local roads included banning turning right out of Commercial Way into Old Kent Road, which would push traffic through the back streets like Naylor Rd and then onto Asylum Road. That's on top of predicted increases in traffic using Asylum Rd to get to the centre.

I've lodged comments on this with the planning department and you can see these (in a slightly mangled form) in the report that went to planning committee last week about the proposed changes to the road layout. I was asking for good signage of alternatives to rat running up to Asylum Road as I thought it was unlikely that the application would be refused, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear they turned the road proposals down and have told officers to try again. Hopefully this will be the end of the no right turn. On the main application I want to see enforceable planning conditions to restrict the dust carts using Asylum Rd to those collecting refuse and recycling from the surrounding streets.

I do support the project, we must take responsibility for our waste and we mustn't take a NIMBY view on this. We can't keep producing huge amounts of rubbish and then sending it off elsewhere to become someone else's problem (and in the end the whole planet's problem). That said the council must do everything possible to minimise the impact of the centre on local residents.