I recently met with Julia Simpson, Area Director at the Environment Agency (EA) on 27 January 2020.

During the meeting, I set out the concerns constituents have expressed about the noise and odour emanating from the site and emphasised the need for more to be done to ensure A1 is a good neighbour. I also raised a number of further points which Ms Simpson has addressed in her latest response (copy enclosed below).

She confirms that the EA has undertaken a programme of visits to Tiffany Close, Kent Close and Limmerhill Way over the last three weeks and at various times of the day in which the A1 site has been operating. The EA has also completed a noise assessment by their national noise expert, and they intend to publish their findings at the end of this month.

Ms Simpson also wishes to reassure constituents that the regular noise logs they have been sending to the EA are being actively considered as part of their overall assessment of the noise. These will be taken into account when the EA determines how to proceed further.

I will continue to make representations to the EA on this matter. I await the outcome of the noise assessment with interest.

Response from Julia Simpson:

Dear Sir John,

It was good to meet with you on 27 January 2020 to discuss the latest situation at A1 Wokingham Car Spares, alongside flood risk management issues within your constituency. Further to this, please find below my response to your letter dated 13 January 2020 to Sir James Bevan, which also includes our response to your follow up questions raised on 27 January, relating to both A1 and some more specific flood risk matters within the area.

In relation to your request of 13 January 2020 seeking further details of the noise monitoring we have undertaken, this has included completion of a proactive programme of officer visits to residential areas across 3 weeks from 03 September 2019 to 20 September 2019. The visits included Tiffany Close, Kent Close and Limmerhill Way and were at various times of day during the operating hours of the A1 site.  We also completed a noise impact assessment by our National noise expert on 14 November 2019. This assessment included noise monitoring at the A1 site, at a location between the A1 site and the residential area and also at Kent Close and Dorset Way in the residential area.

Going forwards we will complete our assessment of the recent noise monitoring and meet with the Site Operator to discuss the latest position and any potential next steps. We will also keep the residents who have reported their concerns updated on our findings and proposed next steps and plan to meet with them by the end of February 2020. I recognise that some residents are frustrated by the time our assessment is taking but we need to gather and assess our evidence of the current situation to evaluate if the A1 facility is compliant with its environmental permit and if additional actions are required to mitigate the noise generated on site.

Further to our meeting, and in relation to the email from your office dated 27 January 2020, seeking additional information on specific questions relating to A1 Wokingham Car Spares, I have set our response to the three questions below for ease / clarity.

Question 1: When do the EA intend to publish their conclusions on the noise report undertaken into A1 Wokingham Car Spares? 

Response; The Environment Agency will inform the residents of the findings of the noise monitoring and our proposed way forward by the end of February 2020.

Question 2: A number of constituents are sending the EA regular noise logs via email. Are these being taken into account as part of the overall noise assessment?

Response; The reports by residents to our Incident Hotline have been the reason we have undertaken additional noise monitoring and site inspections. They are also being considered as part of our overall assessment and the proposed way forward.

Question 3: Is prior non-compliance by the site management, where this has occurred, factored into the decision making process by the EA when making determinations on whether A1 is in compliance with the site permit?

Response; our overall assessment of site compliance with the environmental permit is made on an annual basis and is dependent on the overall results of site inspections that we have made during that period. Hence a site’s Compliance Band (A to F) is assessed and can vary from year to year.

I trust that this provides a helpful update on the information you requested. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.

Kind regards,

Julia

Julia Simpson
Area Director – Thames
Environment Agency

I have received a reply to my congestion busting suggestions from the Roads Minister. She says:

The Department is “delivering the street manager project which will be a new digital service for planning and managing street and roadworks. …every organisation will be using it from 1 April 2020”

“With regards to your suggestions about rephasing traffic lights, you will be pleased to know that we have advocated this approach for many years. Responsive systems monitor traffic flow using sensors and automatically adjust timings as needed. At busy times the main road will be prioritised with the signals working to reduce queue lengths on all approaches as far as possible. The default is usually to leave the signals resting on green on the main road in the absence of any demands for side roads, particularly at quiet times.”

Armed with this support for some of my ideas I will send this to Wokingham Borough where rephasing is needed on crucial junctions.

As expected the twin squeezes on the UK from monetary and fiscal policy along with a weak world background produced no growth in the fourth quarter of 2019.

For the year as a whole the UK managed a creditable 1.4% growth, a bit higher than I expected given the policy background and a testimony to the underlying strength of the economy. This means the UK outgrew the Eurozone again last year. This happened despite the world car manufacturing recession and the impact of higher taxes on UK homes and cars.

Given the weakening world background the UK needs positive action from the authorities to support the uplift in confidence generated by the result of the election.

After years of being wrongly told UK supply chains will be disrupted when we leave the EU, today there is surprisingly little discussion of the impact of the corona virus on world output.

  The Chinese  had to extend their New Year holiday production shut downs this year. Yesterday there was some return to work, but there must still be many closed factories, and  factories with reduced workforces. Some cities  continue with restrictions on travel and activity, and some people in China are isolating themselves at home for 14 days after contact with someone who had the virus.

The South Korean car companies have announced periods of closure as they are short of Chinese components. It is highly likely other companies and countries face shortages which may entail closing their plants for a period.

Meanwhile the worries about the virus have led to a big decline in international travel, the loss of tourism business in China and other parts of Asia, some loss of luxury goods sales which accompany travel by the rich and other knock on effects from the epidemic.

The Chinese economy is the second largest in the world and was meant to grow at 6% this year, meaning it was forecast to provide the single largest boost to world growth of any economy. In the first quarter of 2020 it is very unlikely the Chinese economy will be able to achieve anything like this growth rate. The oil price is down 20% from its January peak as markets worry about lost Chinese consumption and orders.

All this implies the western economies need a bigger monetary and fiscal boost to offset these negative trends from China. It also acts as a reminder that dependence on components from far away can be an additional worry or weakness in manufacturing.

The UK has many campaigners against carbon dioxide who worry about levels of man made gas being put into the atmosphere. I suggest today to them that the UK has been one of the most successful countries at getting its CO2 emissions down. They should now divert their energies to cutting CO 2 in places putting out much more and not cutting in the way the UK has.

They should start with China. China adds around  around 30 times more CO2 to the atmosphere each year  than the UK. It also puts out considerably more per head. At around 30% of world new CO2 output it is surely the place to start, as its output is still increasing.

If that is too difficult then surely they could turn their talents to changing the EU. After our departure they account for around 8 times our output with a higher output per head. They still mine and burn a lot of coal, which we have stopped doing,

Germany in particular needs attention. At more than double our CO2 output there could be quick wins. They might also like to campaign about the German motor industry which is still based around fossil fuels for most of its output.

Clearly it is much easier and cheaper to cut CO2 output in a country like China where there are quick wins and easy changes the UK has already made. It should also be welcome to the EU if we offer them advice on how we got to much lower levels per head than them, as their whole new economic and regulatory policy is based around CO2 reduction.