Waste Management and Refuse Collection at Ennerdale House

Recycling Bins at the rear of Ennerdale House

Last week the recycling bins at Ennerdale House were full to over flowing after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Refuse collection at Ennerdale House

More importantly, neither MERA nor local residents have been informed about the plans for collecting refuse from Ennerdale House during the period of the construction contract and after the new buildings have been built at the base of Ennerdale House.

The new buildings will be built on the car park (see below) and prevent access to the rear of Ennerdale House by either the Refuse Collection vehicles employed to collect waste for Tower Hamlets Councils - or the residents attempting to use recycling facilities.

Current Access to the rear of Ennerdale House

To date neither EasteendHomes, Telford Homes plc, nor Tower Hamlets Council have provided a satisfactory explanation of how refuse collection arrangements are going to work in the future.

For example - where are the answers to these questions?

• where are the recycling bins which need to be accessed by residents going to go - both on a temporary basis and permanently?
• how will the refuse collection lorries collect refuse - both during the contract period and after the construction is complete?
  
• how will the arrangements for collection be made lawful and avoid breaching the health and safety requirements of the Manual Handling Regulations - which none of the above bodies can ignore?

The last question relates to points we've been making for very many months.

Original planning application - MERA objection

In our original objection to the planning application we summarised as follows

This planning application should be REFUSED for the following reasons:

• The application fails to provide for a safe and legal means of removing refuse from the bin storage area of Ennerdale House
• The information provided in the application does not mitigate significant and serious concerns about the health and safety of residents and visitors to Ennerdale House
• No planning application should be approved which has a design deficiency creating a serious hazard to the health and safety of both local residents and refuse operatives

Planning Application: Construction Management Plan: MERA Objection

This is what we said last week in the MERA response to Telford Homes Planning Application relating to the construction management plan which was refused on Thursday last week (see Construction Management Plan - REFUSED)

There has been no notification of arrangements, both temporary and permanent, required for Ennerdale House. The planning condition makes it quite clear (our underlining and bold italics)

The Strategy shall identify access, circulation and servicing arrangements for all new buildings, and all existing buildings where the new development requires alterations to the existing arrangements. The scheme shall include a timetable for the implementation of the approved arrangements.

All we have received to date are waste management arrangements for sites 10,12 and 14.

• These do NOT comprise a Service and Delivery Management Strategy
• they are the site specific appendices to a non-existent stategy for the entire development
  
• there is no indication of how arrangements may need to be varied for existing buildings ie Ennerdale House - which requires both (1) temporary (ie contract duration) and (2) permanent arrangements to be identified
  
• there is no timetable which relates to the entire site and identifies how arrangements will be disrupted (eg by the erection of hoarding) and how these will be addressed for the duration of the building contract
• the replacement of kitchens and bathrooms will also generate a lot of additional waste and no provision for where that waste will be stored on a secure basis until collection has been identified
• no frequency/timings for waste collection during the site contract have been identified. Clearly refuse lorries are very large and their presence on a building site taking deliveries needs to be managed very carefully if the entire estate is not going to grind to a complete stop.
  

We assume therefore that Tower Hamlets Council will NOT permit development to commence until a Document comprising a Services and Delivery Management strategy covering ALL required aspects has been submitted and approved - as per the original planning condition

The Service and Delivery Management Strategy also relates to very critical comments we made concerning the original planning application and the refuse collection and displosal arrangements for Ennerdale House. We were advised at Committee that the detailed proposals relating to waste management and collection would be dealt with as part of the planning conditions - and yet no proposals have been presented.

We refer you also to very detailed comments in our letter dated 24th November 2009 and the attached document

PA/09/02065: Regeneration of existing Eric and Treby Estate in Mile End East, London, E3 PA/09/02066: Demolition of 1-14 Brokesley Street (Paragraph 3.1 Waste Management)

The current contract provides for bins to be pulled 10 metres on a level surface. The distance from the bin storage space and the estate road has been measured by a planning expert and is 27.5 metres (i.e. 17.5 metres MORE >than the permitted 10 metres that bins can be dragged by refuse operatives under the existing contract). This means that refuse operatives are unable to remove bins removed from their current location. This is clearly completely unacceptable and is a serious flaw in the design.

• If the refuse vehicle parks on the estate road it will block an emergency exit from the tower block – which is illegal

• The distance from the space where the bins are to be kept and a legal place to park is in excess of 50 metres.

The proposed design clearly breaches statutory requirements relating to emergency exits and health and safety and contractual requirements for the collection of refuse. This means

• EITHER waste cannot be collected from Ennerdale House

• OR if the Council’s contractors attempt to collect refuse from the refuse bins at the base of Ennerdale House they will breach both statutory requirements and the existing contract.

The Council clearly cannot approve a planning application which involves the breach of statutory requirements which the Council must uphold.

We contend that the proposed arrangements are illegal as they will breach the European Directive on Manual Handling Regulations (adopted by the UK in 1992) and which influences the terms of the Council's existing contract for waste management. Denise Hopkins, a Waste Management Officer for the Council, has also advised MERA that the approved distance for moving paladins is 10 metres on good ground. The waste area is more than 25m from the nearest access point for refuse vehicles. It doesn't matter whether caretakers or refuse operatives are told to move the skips more than 10m, whoever gives the instruction renders themselves liable in law for any resulting damage. The Regulations were brought in specifically to avoid the costs of workforces injuring their backs. We consider it would be socially irresponsible of the Council to approve an arrangement which is not compatible with the Manual Handling Regulations.

It won't be possible to usethe existing skip as refuse trucks will be unable to accessthe waste area on the Southern Grove aspect as they do at present.

We do not understand the comment in the December Committee report that there were no objections from LBTH Cleansing. Did you mean there was no response received from LBTH Cleansing? Clearly both Cleansing and Highways have to have a detailed appreciation of what is required before they can sign off revised arrangements for the collection of refuse from Ennerdale House

Future actions:

• Please advise us as and when you receive the proposed Service and Delivery Management Strategy.
• We suggest you send the part which relates to waste collection from Ennerdale House to the Council's Legal Officers (contracts relating to waste management), the responsible Highways Officer, the responsible Assistant Director plus Contracts Team Manager for the waste management contract and the company which has the waste management contract. They all need to sign off the proposed arrangements or we consider you could have a building from which waste cannot lawfully be collected.

If you have any queries please contact MERA
If you have a comments please leave it below