Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the minimum acceptable distance between housing and open windrow composting sites.

The Environment Agency’s standard rules permit for composting does not allow operations within 250m of housing. Operations may be allowed closer to sensitive receptors, provided that a site-specific assessment has been made, that aerosol release is controlled, and that monitoring is in place to confirm the efficacy of such controls. Such an operation would require a bespoke permit. Decisions about location of new housing are made under the separate local authority-led planning system.