Gowing and Pursey Respond to Residents' Concerns

And welcome dialogue with local community on waste transfer

The Environment Agency sent us a statement about their involvement with the Waste Transfer site. Their officer said: "We are in regular contact with Gowing and Pursey. Our role in regulating the site is to prevent harm to the environment by monitoring and making sure it complies with environmental permitting regulations."

Gowing and Pursey's spokesman Michael Hughes has told us that the company is very conscious of neighbouring residents and businesses.

He also said: We welcome dialogue with the local community, and with councillors, officers and politicians who may be able to help us to negotiate identifying a more suitable site for our operation."

We are reprinting Mr Hughes' extensive letter in full below:

I would firstly like to clarify that there are a number of different sites and companies trading from the area around our own site in Horn Lane. To the best of my knowledge ours is the only Waste Transfer Station. I understand that in addition to our yard there is a scrap metal dealer, a concrete batching plant, aggregate supplies, as well as other heavy industrial sites. 

I can confirm that there was an accident on our site on Tuesday 2nd March 2010. The incident involved a lorry not owned or operated by ourselves and a driver not employed by our company. The matter is the subject of an enquiry by the Health & Safety executive and I can not comment further at this stage.

I would like to take issue with a point raised by Hayes Thompson concerning fires. I can confirm that Gowing & Pursey do not and never have burned items on site or had fires of any kind. The penalties for doing so on a licensed waste transfer station are severe and we would respectfully suggest that Mr Thompson must be talking of another site in the area. It is worth noting that we currently recycle in excess of 85% of all waste received on site. The balance of waste is currently land-filled, not incinerated, although we are currently exploring ways of reducing the amount we land fill and hope to be able to have 100% recycling within 5 years. 

With regard to the comment that the yard has expanded three fold in 30 years, I would disagree. The waste transfer station currently operated by Gowing & Pursey, has been in existence on the site since the 1930’s and to the best of my knowledge, still occupies the same area it originally did. 

We can understand that local residents do not want to live side by side with heavy industry. However, there is a need for the service we provide. We have been looking at many other sites in both the London Borough of Ealing and neighbouring boroughs, to move our operation and build a state of the art Waste Transfer Station, which would be both more suitable to our needs and address the wishes of the local community. With this in mind we would welcome a meeting with Angie Bray. We are currently seeking a pre planning meeting with Ealing Council to discuss a suitable site that we have identified for building a waste transfer station in another area of the borough. 

With regards to the air quality, we have dust monitors on site and the information is sent monthly to the Environment Agency. I understand that over the last few years the dust suppression systems we have put in place, have led to a vast improvement in dust emissions leaving our site. We are currently working with Dr Yasmin Vawda and Dr David Harrison of UK Bureau Veritas to look at ways of further improving dust control on our site. UK Bureau Veritas are the industry leaders in this area and have a world wide reputation for excellence. 

We have applied for planning permission. However, we feel that the new temporary structure will further reduce dust emissions from our site. 

Michael Hughes
For & On Behalf of
Gowing & Pursey

March 12, 2010