Capel Incinerator

2.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 28th Aug 2003

In December 2001, Surrey County Council's Planning and Regulatory Committee met to decide on three of the most controversial Planning Applications for many years - the 3 so-called "Energy from Waste" Incinerators in Redhill, Guildford and Capel, south of Dorking. The large attendance by the public was catered for by a video link to the sports hall.

The committee refused the Redhill and Guildford applications. They eventually approved that for Capel, but only after a proposal to refuse it was narrowly defeated by 8 votes to 6. As with all Planning Applications it was a requirement that it must be a "free vote" and accordingly the voting was not on party lines.

Lib Dem County Cllr Colin Taylor was one of the 6 committee members who voted for refusal. Speaking afterwards he said, "I was particularly concerned about the heavy lorry traffic along the M25 to Leatherhead and then down the A24 through Dorking, which seemed to me to contravene the 'proximity principle', as well as the damage to the beautiful countryside around Capel".

Subsequently the decision went to the Secretary of State for the Environment to give the final verdict, because an Incinerator cannot be built in the countryside without his consent. In April 2002 he decided to make no objection, so it seemed that the Capel Incinerator would go ahead.

However at the behest of the Capel Action Group, a Judicial Review took place in the High Court in November 2002 before Mr Justice Sullivan. The original Committee decision was quashed on the grounds of failure to correctly apply certain Surrey Waste Local Plan policies and failure to properly apply the 'proximity principle'.

Mr Justice Sullivan also quashed the Council's decision not to refer the application back to its own Planning and Regulatory Committee in the light of the appeal decision on the Patteson Court mineral extraction and landfill planning application. The Capel application then came back to the Planning and Regulatory Committee.

Eventually, in July 2003, the Capel EfW Incinerator application was withdrawn.