Why Sheepbridge?

The Sheepbridge Resource Park is proposed to be developed at the Cammac Coal Yard located off Dunston Road which is part of Sheepbridge Industrial Estate and is currently used for outside heavy plant storage. The yard has a history as a coal washery and of open cast mining. The land is also immediately adjacent to an old landfill.

A fundamental principle of sustainability is proximity. This principle seeks to ensure that activities are carried out close to the market they serve and are limited in scale to represent the local community; the principle seeks to reduce vehicle transport and allow convenient access to the development for the workforce.

Chesterfield is the largest urban settlement within Derbyshire (Derby being a Unitary Authority). As such it proportionately produces significant waste streams from the businesses that serve this population. Locating a facility in the market it serves stops waste being transferred out of the area for disposal contributing to the reduction of greenhouses gases from transportation, recycling and renewable energy production.

Derbyshire County Council along with Derby City Council is preparing a Minerals and Waste Development Framework. This Framework sets out the plans to meet the requirements to treat waste in Derbyshire as a whole until 2020. This Framework highlights that to meet its targets new facilities that reduce landfill are needed. The Framework also illustrates that Derbyshire will run out of landfill space by 2014.

Chesterfield Borough has the highest population and greatest employment base of any district in Derbyshire. However, the historical decline of primary and manufacturing/engineering jobs (although offset by service industry employment) has led to higher than average unemployment. Statistics also show that the types of jobs found within the Borough are not representative of the national profile.

Sheepbridge Resource Park will need employees that reflect the full spectrum of employment with over 50% of the jobs of NVQ Level 2 standard and the average income being £1000 per annum over the average for Chesterfield. The jobs from Phase 1 will include engineers, technicians and operations management staff. A key reason for selecting Sheepbridge for the development of a Resource Park is the availability of the workforce and the historical pre-disposition to manufacturing and engineering.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park is clearly a major development which will attract high public interest. To ensure that the development is appropriate to the site chosen, a thorough evaluation of current and emerging planning policy and guidance was undertaken. This review produced two important points;

Planning for Waste Developments

Derbyshire is 3 years into the preparation of its Minerals and Waste Development Framework. In terms of waste management, the framework is a collection of documents which will set out planning policy for future waste development and identifies, where necessary, sites where new facilities could be located. A document called the Waste Sites Allocation Development Plan Document identifies such sites and has already been prepared by Derbyshire County and Derby City Councils. Although not yet adopted, it is at an advanced stage having already been subject to formal public consultation.

Renewable Energy

On a national level the recent announcement from Gordon Brown that £100bn will be spent on renewable energy underlines the importance of replacing fossil fuels.

Derbyshire has, as every authority does in the East Midlands, a renewable energy target. This target is 224 GW of electricity; this is enough to power 60,000 homes.

Chesterfield Borough Council takes climate change seriously, ensuring developments where possible source renewable energy to replace fossil fuels and focuses on sustainable energy use. As demonstration of this it, like 200 other Councils, has signed up to Nottingham Declaration, a document that commits the Council to actively tackle climate change in their area and help the UK deliver its national climate change targets.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will deliver 14% of the Derbyshire Renewable Energy target. This is enough power to supply 16,000 houses, or put another way, 38% of all the households in Chesterfield.