Public consultation over recycling permit bid

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has confirmed that the permit application by Powys County Council, which in effect is to run the site, has now been formally submitted for the North Powys Bulk Recycling Facility.

Mid Wales NRW operations manager Ann Weedy said:  “We will be holding a public consultation as part of our determination process, which we will advertise accordingly.”

Villagers fear that black bin residual waste will be dealt with at the facility and have vowed to fight any move to allow this to happen.

Mark Pearce of campaign group Abermule Communities Together (ACT) said: “NRW has previously given written undertakings that this permit application will be of high public interest, and subject to a public consultation.

“We do not have a date yet for this consultation, where a we will have a once-and-for-all opportunity to submit views  or even objections on the waste transfer station just outside our village.”

Powys Council’s cabinet member for waste and recycling Councillor Heulwen Hulme said that the facility is needed to “increase recycling rates”.

The centre is supposed to receive recycling collected from households across Montgomeryshire where it will be squashed or “bulked,” so that it can be more easily transported to processors to turn into new products.

In January 2020 NRW received an initial application from Powys Council, but said it “lacked some of the technical information” that was needed to start the decision making process.

In August 2018, planning permission was given for the £4 million scheme. In May 2019 the council’s cabinet voted unanimously in favour of going ahead with the scheme after a full council meeting had urged them to refuse it.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it had been expected that building work at the site would have finished and that the facility would be up and running from last October.