Onyx, Bromley Council and the Environment Agency invited several local residents to the second of the quarterly residents meetings. It was a chance for all parties to discuss issues with the site and get an update on the actions on Onyx and Bromley Council had from the previous meeting.
The minutes detailed below
Attendees:
Residents Representitives from Mornington Avenue, Carlyle Avenue and
The Avenue
Other representitives: Tony Hawkes (Environment Agency), John Woodruff
(Bromley Council), Nick Allen and Tom Hall (Veolia)
First point raised by NH was that there are currently 19 outstanding actions for Veolia, Bromley Council or the Environment Agency from previous meetings:
From Nov 05:
Not to use mechanical shovel before 8am on weekdays (Veolia)
Not to use horns on lorries excessively (Veolia)
Put signs up to ask members of the public to be considerate when dumping
their rubbish (Veolia)
Put advertising up for the satellite sites (BCC / Veolia)
Turn sprinkler / deodouriser on when there is any activity in the sheds
(Veolia)
From Feb 06:
Put signs up to ask members of the public to be considerate when dumping
their rubbish (Veolia)
Onyx to take additional action to reduce noise - shouting excessive use
of lorry horns and mechanical shovel (Veolia
Planting of trees round edge of site (BCC)
Take action to reduce mechanical shovel noise (Veolia)
Reduce numbers of birds at site (Veolia)
Additional advertising for satellite sites (BCC/ Veolia)
Closing an hour early on Saturday (BCC / Veolia)
From May 06:
Put signs up to ask members of the public to be considerate when dumping
their rubbish (Veolia)
Adjust lights at depot end of site - Paul Chiltern to attend next meeting
(Veolia)
Reduce noise from mechanical shovel before 8am (Veolia)
Deodourisers to be on timer to turn of at 8pm (Veolia)
Member of police to attend next residents meeting (Veolia)
Tony Hawkes to provide details of other sections of Veolia licence that
are "no longer enforceable in law" (Tony Hawkes)
Environment Agency to draft new licence (Tony Hawkes)
The following were given in response to some of the actions:
Member of police to attend next residents meeting (Veolia)
Veolia has met with Police and there should be more visible police presence
in area, particularly police on push bikes down the alleys and footpaths.
Any abuse (verbal or physical) to the staff of Veolia, particularly around
closing times will be reported to the police and car registration numbers
given - the police have promised to prosecute these individuals.
The police will monitor the traffic congestion around the junction of
Waldo Road and Homesdale road, with a view to extending the yellow box
area to under the bridge and taking action against people who sit in the
yellow boxes blocking traffic
Closing an hour early on Saturday (BCC / Veolia)
The residents agreed that to close the site an hour earlier on a Saturday
and allow the site open for an extra hour on one day in the week would
be acceptable. It would not be acceptable to open the site an hour earlier
on a Saturday to close it an hour earlier.
JW stated that this should not be a problem, Tony Hawkes said that from
a licencing perspective nothing would need to change.
Action: JW will investigate this and have a full and
formal reply for the next meeting detailing plans to implement or detailed
reasons as to why it cannot be implemented.
Deodourisers to be on timer to turn of at 8pm (Veolia)
The timer will be fitted to the deodourisers w/c 17th September - this
will be set to turn deodourisers off at 8pm every day.
Veolia have agreed to spread woodchip on the earth banks along Waldo Road
tip at the ends of the gardens in Mornington avenue to keep the dust down
in dry weather. This will be compeleted in September.
Veolia have agreed to get Waldo Road swept at least once a day, EVERY
day. Twice or three times on dry days.
Additional advertising for satellite sites (BCC/ Veolia)
JW is not prepared to put signs up either on Homesdale Road or outside
the satellite sites during their operating hours as it will encourage
more people to use them and they are already busy and it causes queues.
Reduce numbers of birds at site (Veolia)
Veolia have arranged a culling of birds on the site, they are limited
in the types of birds that can be culled, but they agreed that it can
be done regularly to keep bird numbers down.
Action: Veolia to provide update at next meeting on culling
- when they are planned and numbers culled
Reduce noise from mechanical shovel before 8am (Veolia)
Action: Veolia will look into not using the mechanical
shovel before 8am - this may not be possible on Mondays however other
days it should be ok.
The shovels have been fitted with rubber bungs to deaden the noise of
the bucket when it tips back - these do seem to be working.
Veolia were asked why it was necessary to empty the large green containers
between 7am and 8am every day - why couldn't they be emptied the night
before.
- it takes 20 minutes to empty each container and as such there wouldn't
be time to empty all 12 containers at the end of the day and there doesn't
seem to be a solution as to how this problem can be overcome, even by
closing off half the containers for the last 2 hours of a day would mean
that the half that were used would be full and people would leave rubbish
on the ground.
Action: Veolia will look into it again
New questions for this meeting:
It was asked whether the Biodiesel plant would make a noise or smell as
it was rumoured to do both. Veolia advised that it would makes no noise
and no smell.
When are the barriers going to be put up along the Carlyle Avenue boundary wall. Nic Allen said that work would be complete on these by the end of September though it is likely that they will only go as far along the wall as the end of the tipping shed.
Veolia gave a number to call during the tip opening hours if there are any issues. It is the number for the phone that the senior charge hand has at all times during site operating hours (unlike the office numbers) - the number is 07768 817451.