April 10 2013.

Newhaven's MP Norman Baker is calling on the Planning Inspectorate to refuse Veolia's appeal to have lorries rumbling around the streets of Newhaven at 4 o'clock in the morning, six days a week, and has condemned what he terms Veolia's "contempt for the people of Newhaven" and "acting like an occupying force, aided and abetted by the Tory county council".

The MP's comments come in light of Veolia appealing the decision of Lewes District Council to minimise the impact of lorry movements to "safeguard the local environment and amenities of Newhaven's residents from undue noise". Veolia has consistently pushed for its vehicles to operate in the depths of the night, but due to pressure from the MP, local residents and others, the company has met strong objections at every juncture.

On the 15th of January 2013, Lewes District Council approved Veolia's application for the Installation of a modular building, provision of HGV parking, provision of staff parking, and use as skip storage and vehicle depot. However, noting that this will bring increased lorry movements to the area, the council added a condition to restrict HGV movements to the hours of  0700 - 1900 Mondays to Fridays (excluding bank holidays) and 0700 - 1500 on Saturdays.

Veolia has appealed the HGV restrictions Condition and is proposing lorry movements between 0400 - 1700 Monday to Friday, 0400 - 1200 on Saturdays and 0400 - 1400 on bank holidays.

Norman says: "Veolia continue to push the boundaries and in doing so the company is showing complete contempt for the people of Newhaven. Under the permission issued, Veolia will be allowed to have HGVs operating from the site at 7 o'clock in the morning. But it seems that this is not good enough for this company. No, it wants lorries rumbling around in the dead of night. Veolia says it wants to be part of the Newhaven community, but instead it is acting like an occupying force, aided and abetted by the Tory county council."

A number of letters on East Sussex County Council's website show that the Tory council is consistently allowing the rules on bank holidays for lorry movements to and from the incinerator to be "relaxed". Four letters on the website show that Veolia has made consistent applications for the rules to be relaxed and East Sussex County Council has been only too happy to allow this.

The MP concluded: "Enough is enough, this appeal should be dismissed. It is time for Veolia to start treating the people of Newhaven with some respect."

The deadline for objections to the appeal is the 26th of April 2013.

You can access the objections page by going to the link below and entering the case reference number 2192471

www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/casesearch.asp