Letter to Cherry Lodge Golf Course members
Dear
Golf Club Member
You may
be aware that the proposal by Woodland Environmental, to use construction
landfill to landscape your Golf Club, was turned down by Bromley Council.
The residents of Biggin Hill are now being told that 'Woodland', on behalf
of Cherry Lodge, will now appeal that decision. The residents and
retailers of Biggin Hill would like to draw your attention to a number of
points that you may not have appreciated and may affect your decision
about the Golf Club improvement plan.
Woodland Environmental have made a number of points in their presentation
that gloss over the real impact on the community. In particular they
comment on:
1.
The quantity of landfill - 250,000 cu.metres of landfill construction
waste,
2.
The opening times for running the waste to the site - 7.30am to 5.30pm,
3.
The temporary effect on the community - 18 months.
They
also say that they will be altering 12 holes on the golf course and only
'minor disruption that will occur' over the whole period. Woodlands have
sought to minimise (in their presentation) the scale of disruption to both
the Community and the Golf Club, but then of course they would, wouldn't
they. They stand to create an income for their company of between £1 - 1.5
million.
We
would like you to consider their proposal in more detail.
1.
250,000 cu.metres to be moved within a period of 18 months.
They talk about 'clay, soil and other excavated materials' when really
they mean construction rubble from building sites. The 'material to be
sourced within a
But the
most important point is to understand the scale of what 250,000 cu.metres
means (note 1 cu.metre is approximately 1 ton). The whole of
How
long will it really take - not 18 months but more like
5 years
or
longer.
2.
In Woodlands' proposal to your Club, they talk about running 70 - 80
delivery lorries per day between the hours of 7.30 am and 5.30 pm. This
would only take place during Monday to Friday so that the Golf Club
members will not be affected at the weekend (other than 12 holes being
re-constructed on an intermittent basis). So the morning and evening rush
hours and the school hours will see 30 - ton lorries traveling through the
main High Street of Biggin Hill.
70 - 80
delivery lorries does not sound too bad - that's only 1 lorry every 6
minutes. But again this is where Woodlands have been economical with the
truth. Most people would talk about lorry movements because 1 delivery
means 2 lorry movements (full and empty). The real number of lorries
travelling through Biggin Hill is
140-160 per day or 1 every 3 minutes - that
is real disturbance and damage to the community.
3.
Don't forget, Woodlands say this is only a temporary disturbance. On their
plans it will be for 18 months but for any qualitative analysis of their
plans, this temporary disturbance to the community could last 5 years or
more.
And
what is the real effect for you as a golfer?
As a
golf club member do you really support such a plan which will see the
local community alienated in order for you to have a driving range, car
parks and re-modelled holes, not to mention the disruption to your playing
facilities, spanning a more realistic
5 year period.
Do you
really care so little about your community that you are prepared to
inflict such damage and disturbance to them?
Please
talk to us.
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Firstly,
we are not just saying 5 years - we are saying 5 years or longer.
Even more important how can the developer, Woodlands, prove that they can
obtain the inert landfill in 18 months. They must have used some logic to
say, in their original proposal, that they were taking 18 months (and not
9 months or a year) to import the materials and would be opening the site
for loads at 7.30 and close at 5.30. In their altered proposal to the
council they said there opening times would be restricted to 9.30 to 4.30.
Even that change should have increased the period to 2 years 2 months (7
hours versus 10 hours of opening).
Secondly, and most important, we can show that Kent, with a width of 63
miles by 40 miles depth (an area of 1537 square miles), only used 200,000
tons of inert waste (and that included 20,000 tons from London). Woodlands
are claiming that with a catchment area of 20 mile radius, they can pull
in 250,000 tons. Let us examine that a little more.
Even if
we allow their figures to assume they will pull in all the waste from Kent
which is produced within that 20 miles- so are we allowed to say that they
will attract one third of all of Kent's inert construction landfill (20
miles into the 60 miles).
180,000
tons divided by 3 equals 60,000 tons
Add to
that all 100% of the waste London sends to Kent - 20,000 tons Gives
a total of 80,000 tons of available inert landfill waste per year.
That
means if they really do achieve all of the above it will 3- 4 years
to obtain the waste.
But now
we have to factor in the reduced opening hours because site operators will
start sending their waste to landfill sites that open at normal operating
times. So we have to assume they will lose some of that 100% availability
because it will go to other sites - so do we use the 7 hours opening
versus 10 hours normal opening to say that the maximum waste Woodlands can
take is 56,000 tons.
We have
now arrived at 5 years
but it
also says that Woodlands have taken ALL of the available landfill
within the catchment area. All landfill sites make their money by allowing
construction companies to dump their waste but the landfill operator makes
a charge for it, which can vary depending upon market conditions. You now
have to assume that all of these landfill operators will sit back and
allow Woodlands to take all of their income. So our calculations can
afford to be generous and say that Woodlands will not take 100% of
availability, because of competitive pressures, but maybe they can take
50%.
What
people have missed is that landfill is very profitable for the landfill
operator - he does not provide lorries or drivers but just keeps the site
open. That is why Woodlands can afford to say to Cherry Lodge Golf Club
that they will improve the course for free. Woodlands will make an
enormous profit on an income stream created from 250,000 tons of waste
(£4-5 per ton). The real problem is the time variable created from all the
different sites competing for a limited landfill waste supply. Our
assumptions have allowed Woodlands to take 100% of the availability and
that results in 5 years. If Woodlands can only achieve 50% availability
then the time span increases to 10 years.
We have
used publicly available statistics - where have Woodlands obtained theirs?
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