The Department of the Environment of the Basque Government has given the Azkoitia City Hall the green light that was lacking to amend the subsidiary rules: the strategic environmental declaration. The Resolution was published in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country on 22 April. The City Council will therefore be able to amend the subsidiary rules so that the company Larke 360 can build a waste plant in Azkarate, in Azkoitia.

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The request from the Azkoitia City Hall has very quickly obtained the strategic environmental declaration from the Department of the Environment of the Basque Government. In fact, on 14 February the City Council made the corresponding application for admission. However, on March 14, the procedure was suspended, as the state of alarm decreed before COVID-19 has paralyzed procedures that are not "essential". On 26 March last, the Azkoitia City Council requested not to suspend the procedure on the grounds that it is a "dossier of general interest".

Amendments to the Subsidiary Rules are drafted in such a way that the draft is not known

The Basque Government has authorised the drafting of the "4th Edition of the Azkoitia Subsidiary Rules". If the "Point change" is read, it is noteworthy that there is no mention that is easily identified with the waste plant. On the contrary, other projects can be more easily understood by the citizen through the reading of subsidiary rules. See another case: in particular, the "point modification" referring to the Azkarate waste plant is as follows: "E) Review of land-use planning not for development: Zoning of the Non-Urbanizable Soil is updated for its adaptation to territorial and sectoral planning as well as to the protection figures that have been approved to date since the approval of the Subsidiary Rules in force in 2007 and that affect the municipal area of Azkoitia".

What the amendments to the Subsidiary Rules propose in four other areas of Azkotia is easier to identify with concrete projects. For example: "A) Area 24 of San Juan (128,311 m²): It is an industrial estate already urbanized and executed for the most part. It's about increasing buildability."

The City of Azkoitia approved on 9 October 2019 (Official Gazette of Gipuzkoa No. 198) the 4th Amendment of the Subsidiary Rules of Azkoitia. Submit the Timely Amendment to public information for the submission of claims for 45 days. With the reading of point E above, citizens had to make their claims on the waste plant. No claims were received at the City Hall.

What are the steps for the implementation of the waste plant?

- On 15 April EH Bildu announced that if a waste plant is built it will be necessary to amend the subsidiary rules. The strategic environmental statement presented in this news release allows the City Hall to modify the subsidiary rules.

- The environmental impact report received by Larke 360 from the Environment Department of the Basque Government. This is not an Integrated Environmental Authorisation. The company Larke therefore needs two more permits to launch the activity: Waste management authorisation to be granted by the Basque Government and activity authorisation to be granted by the Azkoitia City Hall. Lark has already requested both authorisations, one in the Basque Government and one in the Azkoitia City Hall.

- As we explained in this news item, if the company Larke would like to transfer the waste to the incinerator or the cement plant, it should have the Integrated Environmental Authorisation.