Container firm Maritime Transport is pressing on with plans to demolish buildings on its site at Alconbury.

The Hunts Post has told how the firm has just withdrawn a bid to level the former Alconbury Truckstop site which it wanted to convert into a hub for its container lorry movements.

But a matter of weeks later Maritime has submitted a new planning application to Huntingdonshire District Council to demolish a disused two-storey motel and a single-storey link building at the site.

It already has a firm lined up to start demolition on March 2 in a project lasting two weeks, the application said.

The original demolition scheme brought opposition from a number of parish councils, including Alconbury, which said it was "very concerned" about the creation of the proposed container exchange hub.

It said it was worried about disturbance caused by the potential moving of containers 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the safety of stacking containers up to five high at the site.

The truckstop and filling station used to be used by long distance lorry drivers who needed to take a break but Maritime acquired the site in 2016 and it was closed to other operators in 2017.

Maritime wants its vehicles to be able to deliver containers to Alconbury and to take others away.

Parishes were also concerned about the displacement of lorries from other firms which could no longer use the site and there had been reports of vehicles parking at the roadside and leaving behind waste, including human excrement.

A document submitted with the new planning application said: "Maritime Transport is committed to Huntingdon and to its employees based at Alconbury. However, given the potential constraints on the container storage height the company has withdrawn its application (18/00707/FUL) submitted 30th March 2018 and instead substantially retains the present layout for its current use as a lorry park."

But it said the current application was for the demolition of the two storey redundant motel and the single storey link building and that contractors had been appointed to carry out the work and were ready to start on March 2.