Case studies of EIA in practice - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 277

• greater efforts should be made in waste reduction and recycling;
• energy-from-waste schemes would be needed as part of an integrated waste
management strategy, but there was considerable concern about their environmental
effects and the monitoring of plant; and
• landfill was the least preferred option (Petts 1995).
The public participation exercise in Hampshire resulted in the inclusion in the county's
revised waste strategy (published in 1994) of plans to build three smaller energy-from-
waste incinerators (each with a capacity of 100,000-165,000 tonnes), rather than the
single large incinerator originally proposed. The new plants were to be located in
Portsmouth (on the same site as the earlier application), Chineham, near Basingstoke, and
Marchwood, near Southampton. EIA work for these proposed developments began in
1998 (Petts 2003). It is the first of these plants that is the focus of this case study.
9.5.4 The contact group process
The EIA process for each of the three proposed incinerators in Hampshire involved a
method of public participation known as the “contact group” process. This involved an
extended process of public questioning during the preparation of the ES for each site
through a contact group involving a range of key local interests. These contact groups
were established by the developer (Hampshire Waste Services [HWS]), and were part of
the contractual requirements placed on the company by the CC (Petts 2003). This
approach had the potential to enable the public's views to result in reassessment of issues
dealt with in the ES, and to changes in the project proposals and mitigation measures,
prior to the submission of the ES to the competent authority.
The terms of reference for the Portsmouth contact group stated that it was designed (a)
to allow key members of the public to develop informed decisions about waste issues and
the proposal; and (b) to assist the developer (HWS) in ensuring that it understood and
responded to the views of the members of the local community (Snary 2002). The
arrangements for extended public participation in this case go beyond the legal
requirements under the UK EIA Regulations (discussed in Chapter 6), and were the first
time that such methods had been used in the UK EIA process for a waste incinerator
(Snary 2002).
In the Portsmouth incinerator case, 10 members of the public were included in the
contact group—they were selected by HWS to represent a range of local interests, and
included a representative from the local school, the local branch of FoE, and the
Portsmouth Environmental Forum, plus seven representatives from the six
neighbourhood forums in closest proximity to the project site. Group members were
encouraged to network with the local residents in their neighbourhood. It was made clear
to participants that membership did not imply support for the proposals, and indeed
almost all of the participants were opposed to the development.
The contact group met once a week over a six-week period immediately prior to the
submission of the planning application and ES in August 1998. Issues covered by the
contact group at these meetings included:
• waste-to-energy incinerators and EIA;
• design of the plant;