 |
Salmon & Trout Association Game anglers for fish, people, the environment EAST SUSSEX BRANCH |
|
|
| Join S&TA Today |
|
Mr. I. Blake February 2nd 2010
Dear Mr Blake, Re: East Sussex County Council Waste & Minerals Care Strategy Consultation, Land disposal site to the east of Gold Bridge and south of the A272 between Newick and Piltdown: Policy CS6. The Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) is a charity supported by game anglers campaigning for the sustainable management and conservation of water, the aquatic environment and the fish and many other species which rely upon it for their existence. We have 11,000 individual members and 250 clubs throughout the UK. We would particularly like to support the letter sent to you on the above planning application on January 8th by the Chairman of our East Sussex Branch, Dr Roderick Yuill. He illustrated very well the issues involved with this application for a land disposal site at Piltdown, and I will not repeat much of what he said. However, from a national perspective, this Association has distinct concerns over the potential for this site to leach contaminants into the nearby River Ouse, an important river in the South East of England for sea trout and brown trout, both Biodiversity Action Plan species, and bullhead, a designated species under the EU Habitats Directive. These fish are under threat, and any likelihood that they could be further impacted by human interference should be taken extremely seriously when contemplating this application at Committee stage. You will be aware, I am sure, that measures to achieve good ecological status under the EU Water Framework Directive began in January this year. One of the main objectives of the Directive is that rivers should not experience any further decline in ecological quality, and all should achieve good status by 2015 or, failing that, by the latest 2027. It goes without saying that a land disposal site such as this would only have to fail very irregularly over long time spans to have a significant impact on the Ouse, its aquatic habitats, fish and water-dependent species, leading to failure of the WFD objectives and possible infraction under European law. I have no doubt that, with the shortage of water available for potable supply in the region, it would also have a severe impact on drinking water, potentially contravening the Drinking Water Directive. S&TA and our colleagues in many other fisheries and conservation organisations are working very hard to alleviate the problems that a highly populated and managed island has on its natural water resources. While we appreciate that the South East of England has particular problems with water and waste disposal, we feel that above application should be refused on the grounds that contaminated leachate from the site could have serious and long lasting impact on the River Ouse, its habitats and dependent species. Yours sincerely,
Paul Knight Chief Executive
|
|
