Hertfordshire County Council is consulting on its draft Waste Local Plan, to ensure our area has the right mix of facilities to deal with the waste produced by residents and businesses.

Our county including Hitchin and north Herts is projected to produce 4.4 million tonnes of waste a year by 2033 – an increase of almost 1m tonnes a year from current levels.

Hertfordshire already produces more waste than it can manage locally, and with the county's population expected to rise by up to 175,000 by 2031, and up to 100,000 new homes and 100,000 new jobs being created over the same period, there is a need to find significantly more capacity to recycle, recover and dispose of our waste in future.

As the Waste Planning Authority for Hertfordshire, the county council needs to set out strategic policies for managing the county's waste, and identify the types of facilities needed.

These could include recycling centres, transfer stations, composting facilities or disposal facilities.

Although the draft plan does not identify particular sites for new facilities, it does set out the broad areas where growth is expected in the county, and where new facilities are likely to be needed. It also sets out design principles for facilities.

Derrick Ashley, Cabinet Member for Growth, Infrastructure, Planning and the Economy, said: "We produce millions of tonnes of waste in Hertfordshire every year, most of which is commercial and industrial waste, and we're going to need more facilities to help us manage all this waste responsibly.

"We're expecting significant growth in the county over the next 15 years and we need to plan now to make sure we have the infrastructure in place to make sure that we benefit from that.

"We want to hear people's views on this draft plan now so we can ensure that any concerns are taken into account at an early stage."

The current Waste Local Plan was adopted in 2014 and now needs to be reviewed following a number of changes to the planning system and national policies in the intervening years.

The ten-week consultation runs to Friday 19 March.

The new draft Waste Local Plan, along with supporting documents, can be viewed online[L+]www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/wlp[L+] here,[.L] where you can respond to the consultation using our online survey, or download a consultation form and email it to [email protected].