Warboys landfill site extension likely to be approved
THE extension of Warboys landfill site for non-hazardous waste looks set to be approved today (Thursday). Planners are recommending that Cambridgeshire County Council gives permission for the site to extend by 330,000 cubic metres as part of a scheme that
THE extension of Warboys landfill site for non-hazardous waste looks set to be approved today (Thursday).
Planners are recommending that Cambridgeshire County Council gives permission for the site to extend by 330,000 cubic metres as part of a scheme that would help stabilise the existing tip for reclamation as a nature reserve. It would bring the total void to be filled to around 550,000 cubic metres.
If granted, the consent would allow the operators, Woodside Waste Management Limited, to speed up the rate at which tipping could take place. But planners believe there is not enough waste locally to achieve that, and are recommending that the radius from which landfill material could come should be extended to 130km - to cover the whole of East Anglia, as well as London and Birmingham.
Residents and Warboys Parish Council have had reservations about extending tipping, but the planners and the Environment Agency agree with Woodside that to do so is the best way to get the former brickworks site finished and returned to nature.
The site currently takes around 100,000 tonnes of waste a year, but that could be doubled to complete the landfilling more quickly.
Councillor Victor Lucas, who represents the area on the county council and chairs the Warboys Landfill Forum, told The Hunts Post: "The community clearly wants the whole site to be finished and restored as soon as possible, without in any way compromising safety or anything else that might affect the village. So we shall be looking for certain conditions."
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Once tipping finally ceases, it will take around two further years to restore the 65-acre site, which could then be used as wild-flower meadow land or for grazing. Materials are being stockpiled on site for the restoration.
If the county's development control committee agrees to the application today (Thursday), a raft of conditions would be imposed on Woodside in addition to those policed by the Environment Agency under the operators' environmental permit.
They could include a time limit for completion of tipping by the end of 2016, limits on the hours of operation, control of noise, dust and pollution, restoration of the site and aftercare.
