Lorry convoy plan to stabilise site in town
Thirty lorry-loads of soil could soon be arriving in a town every day, delivering fresh soil to stabilise the ground of a former opencast site.
Deliveries will be 'ad hoc', as and when earth from 'donor sites' is available for the site, which is one kilometre west of Telford town centre.
Neighbouring residents have just over a week to lodge objections to the plans.
Planning chiefs are recommending councillors to approve the plans, adding measures to minimise disruption to one of the town's biggest secondary schools, including warning the headteacher about deliveries.
In a report for Telford & Wrekin’ Council’s eight member planning committee, borough planning officers write: “The application site is located to the west of Hollinshead Way and the north of West Centre Way in the Old Park area.
“The site measures one hectare within a larger 10.8 hectare parcel of open land. The wider site is enclosed on three sides by a mature tree belt.
“Thomas Telford Secondary School and Wrekin Housing Trust offices are located to the east. The nearest residential properties to the site are located approximately 300 metres to the west, beyond Old Park Way.
“The site historically contained opencast coal mining works which has since been backfilled.
“Ground investigations works carried out in 2016 confirmed that a significant depth of made ground is present across the majority of the site which locally reaches depths in excess of 30 metres.”
Granted
To help smooth out these troughs, planning permission was granted in 2017 to 'surcharge' the ground.
“The process of ‘surcharging’ involves the placement of clean soil on a specific part of the site in order to create an increased load at the surface.
“The resulting settlement of the ground is then monitored and recorded as a means of testing ground stability.”
Under the plans, soil delivery trucks will mainly enter the field via Old Park Way, but they will also use the Caledonian Way outside school hours.
“At this stage, the number and frequency of HGVs accessing the site is unknown but it is anticipated that this could be up to 30 per day,” the authors add.
“The timing of deliveries can be timed to avoid busy school periods and parking on the existing highway will need to be managed to avoid interfering with manoeuvrability.
“As the import of materials will be on an ad-hoc basis, depending on when donor sites are available, the applicant will need to keep the headteacher of Thomas Telford School up to date with progress.”
They add that the work will only take place between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The public consulation period will continue until October 29.
“One representation has been in objection to the proposal, if works are in connection with building of more houses,” the authors add.
They recommend that the planning committee votes for the plan.
