Plan ahead as it’s not getting better

I STARTED writing about the permitting process and was tempted to leave this page blank as a protest about the poor permitting service we have received from the Environment Agency over the last few years, which has now reached breaking point. Nothing I write that will make it better and complaining doesn’t work, as we have tried. No-one seems to be taking overall responsibility for a broken system that simply is not performing. This might sound harsh but it is having a significant impact on waste operators.  

I don’t know how many waste related permit applications the Agency are dealing with at the moment and can only comment on those we have submitted. We have 30 applications which have not been allocated to an officer, of which 21 were submitted before November 2021 and dating as far back as March 2021. The total application fees paid for these applications by waste companies is £122,591, a sum which would go a long way to recruiting more permitting staff.

When those applications eventually land on a permitting officer’s desk there are likely to be the usual queries which cause further delays so my message to anyone thinking about a permit application is plan ahead and submit it now. Be prepared for a long delay. The Agency expect us to be patient but are less so when asking operators to respond to their correspondence. I am out of words so here is the response we had in October to our complaint. Not good enough!

“Thank you for your recent contact enquiring about the progress of a number of applications that you have submitted since April of this year. Some of these applications are still awaiting allocation to a member of the permitting team for determination.

I am sorry that it is taking us longer than we would like to allocate applications and understand your concerns around this.

The National Permitting Service is under considerable demand at present. I accept that the level of service you have experienced is below the standards that we have set ourselves, and I am sorry that it has not met your expectations.

I would like to assure you that we are doing everything we can to carry out our statutory duties as quickly as possible, and continue working to improve our capability, capacity, and resilience.

Your applications are making progress in our queue, but it is not possible to give you a definite indication of when our officers will be able to start work on your them, as this depends on an officer with the right skills having the capacity to take it on. As soon as an application is allocated, the Permitting Officer will contact you to discuss the application and next steps.

We aim to respond to all enquiries asking for updates, and at busy times this can have a significant impact on our ability and capacity to progress applications. Please rest assured that we will contact you as soon as there is any update on your applications, and that we are progressing them as quickly as we can.”