How the consultation process works
Covanta believes in widespread consultation. It regards it as being of great value; as being helpful, informative and a core responsibility of an incoming developer and neighbour. Covanta has been consulting on its proposals for a RRF at Rookery South Pit near Stewartby, Bedfordshire since November 2008. Ongoing, active consultation has continued up until the submission to the IPC in August 2010, and throughout the lifetime of the Project.
The Consultation process:
The Rookery South RRF consultation process has engaged with the following organisations, groups and individuals:
- statutory consultees;
- other technical consultees;
- local authorities, including neighbouring authorities whose areas adjoin the two authority areas within which the Application Site lies;
- those with interests in land, e.g. owners and lessees etc; and
- the local and wider community.
Consultation took a variety of forms including: meetings with statutory and technical consultees, meetings with and presentations to the Community Liaison Panel (CLP) established for the Project in Sept 2009, letters, advertisements, 11 public exhibitions, use of the Covanta website and a dedicated telephone information line.
Consultation was structured and took place over four phases, namely:
- winter 2008/spring 2009;
- summer/autumn 2009;
- winter 2009/2010; and
- spring/summer 2010.
The first two phases of consultation included public consultation, technical and statutory consultation, including local authorities.
The third and fourth phases of consultation reflected the additional requirements of consultation under the PA 2008 including; the Statement of Community Consultation, environmental scoping by the IPC, consultation with landowners and the Preliminary Environmental Report (PER).
Feedback from the consultation to date has been fully considered and has led to meaningful impacts on the final submission to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).
More information on the consultation process Covanta has undertaken is shown in the Consultation Report which is available to view on the IPC website: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/projects/eastern/rookery-south-energy-from-waste-generating-station/
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