Waste wagons to increase

CHARLOTTE GREEN COUNCIL bosses have issued a permit for a waste company to increase the number of wagons travelling through the Valley.

Calderdale council has approved an application by composting company Brosters Environmental Ltd for a 50 per cent increase in its ‘traffic movements’, from 40 to 60 wagons a day.

However Valley residents are concerned that the increase will cause a ‘vicious circle’ of road and odour problems.

The environmental works company on Bacup Road, Todmorden which transports waste through Bacup and Rawtenstall, has also been given permission to extend their operating hours by extra hour on weekdays, and by a further three hours on Saturdays.

The decision was approved unanimously by Calderdale council’s planning committee on Tuesday, December 6 despite 44 public objections being made over the application, including from Rossendale council.

Stacksteads resident Peter Sweetmore, who urged Valley residents to object to the plans, said he ‘disappointed’ by the decision.

He said: “It is going to make one heck of a stink right out to Bacup and Stacksteads and through to Rossendale with 20 more wagons coming through. I know the council tried to object and stop it but it is out of their hands. That road is already very congested, and with winter and the extra wagons - it’s going to be a vicious circle and it’s going to cause problems.

“I would certainly be prepared to write to the secretary of state and state our objections to put forward local concerns.”

In the committee report, Mark Thompson, head of Housing, Environment and Renewal, stated he did not consider the extended hours on site with regard to the earlier starts and later Saturday finishing, to be harmful to ‘surrounding residential amenity’ and overall the proposal was considered acceptable.

An agent for Brosters said that it was not possible to ‘divorce movements from extension of hours’.

A spokesman for Rossendale Borough Council said: “We are disappointed with the decision. We will be considering our position and will decide what our next steps are going to be.”

Brosters Environmental were unavailable for further comment.