Cambridgeshire County Council has launched a six week public consultation on the future of waste management and mineral extraction in Cambridgeshire. Some 14 roadshows are being held across the county, including one in Milton at the Bowls Pavilion on Coles Road next Thursday (18/9) from 2pm to 8pm.

The key issue for the village is, unsurprisingly, the waste management side of things.

The previous draft of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Plan called for the Cambridge sewage treatment works to be moved to a new site well east of the village at Honey Hill but that proposal has now been shelved in the face of opposition from the villages who would then be downwind so it looks like we are stuck with the works for good.

From my initial reading of it the latest draft now not only calls for the site to be retained but for provision to be made for it to be expanded as and when necessary on the current site! The only positive is that a side effect of this proposal is that is would make it more difficult to build anything on “Mrs Wilson’s” field opposite Tesco as, in order to protect the site, any planning application within smelling distance of the works would have to be cleared by the County Council.

Other proposals include the closure of the Milton waste and recycling centre, although the life of the land fill is being extended. I’ve yet to determine where we would be expected to take our waste instead.

So it appears that none of this is good news really and you may like to attend next Thursday and find out for yourself and make your feelings known to the planners.

The consultation documents are available online – be warned they’re big and they will take you a while to wade through.