Anger over waste plant scheme

PLANNING bosses at Warrington have decided to visit the site of a proposed waste recycling plant after hearing of strenuous objections from nearby residents.
Officers are recommending the scheme be given the go-ahead but members of the borough council’s planning sub-committee decided to inspect the site, off Folly Lane, Warrington, before reaching a decision.
The site is the former George Howard scrapyard which for years caused problems for residents with noise, vermin, dust, smells and traffic.
It already has permission to receive up to 75,000 tonnes of waste a year but the new applicants – Howard’s Environmental Services Ltd – expect it to handle about 25,000 tonnes per year, including about three heavy lorry deliveries per hour.
Worried residents fear the problems associated with the site in the past will resume.
The committee was told a building for the deposit, sorting, recycling and transfer of non-hazardous waste was dismantled by the previous operators and stored on the site.
The new operators proposed to re-erect the building on the same site, using the original materials.
All waste would be deposited within the building to comply with the existing environmental permit.
Operations would be carried out between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, except for emergency purposes. There would be no operations on Sundays or Bank Holidays.
But the site would be used outside this hours for parking wagons.
All vehicle movements would be via Folly Lane and an existing access onto Hawthorne Street would be closed and used only for emergency access.