Telford recycling company's 6am start plea is rejected
A recycling company’s bid to increase the amount of waste it handles and allow HGVs to leave its site from 6am has been deferred.
Telford and Wrekin planning committee members said the proposed start time for the Ketley premises – one hour earlier than currently allowed – was “not acceptable”.
They welcomed the proposal, by Johnsons Aggregates and Recycling, to reduce the number of weekly vehicle movements in and out of their site off Waterloo Road, but Councillor Nigel Dugmore warned this would mean heavier loads, requiring bigger, noisier engines.
Council planning officers will now re-negotiate with the Derbyshire-based company.
Condition 10 of the site’s current planning permission enforces a 7am-to-7pm working day on weekdays.
The company sought to vary this. A planning officers’ report said this was “to allow up to 10 pre-loaded HGVs that would be filled, parked and ready to go the previous day to exit the site between 6am and 7am, Monday to Friday”.
This would allow the trucks to beat the morning rush and arrive at building sites for 7am starts.
Condition 16 limits the amount of material entering the site to 6,000 tonnes a month. The company sought to increase this to 200,000 a year.
“This would be an effective increase of 128,000 tonnes per year,” the report said.
This would allow the company to process “incinerator bottom ash”, an aggregate material that can be used in construction.
IBA “is heavier than previous waste allowed into the site such as paper, plastic and general skip waste,” it adds.
Condition 17 set a maximum of 50 vehicle movements in and out of the site per working day, including Saturdays. They sought to change this to 400 a week.
Johnsons Aggregates and Recycling had agreed to a “Section 106” agreement to provide £40,000 for a vehicle activated signage system to warn motorists of approaching lorries and £36,000 for road resurfacing.
Objecting to the proposal, Ketley Parish Council chair Sam Millward Thomas said: “There has always been concern about road safety and how the site jeopardises pedestrians, especially children.
“The increased opening hours will have a significant impact.”
Cllr Dugmore said: “I think it’s good that there is going to be a reduction in the number of wagons, but that is tempered by the size of them.
“A bigger wagon needs a bigger engine, and that means more noise.
“It only takes one vehicle to wake a resident, and 6am is a little early.”
Councillor Ian Fletcher said he was happy to vary condition 17, but not 10 and 16.
Development manager Valerie Hulme said the committee could not cherry-pick which conditions to vary.
“It’s a full package that has been proposed, and has brought in the additional Section 106 agreement that allows the additional safety features,” she said, suggesting councillors defer the application so officers could re-negotiate with the company.
Councillor Peter Scott said: “If we do defer it, you need to say that there is a universal feeling against Condition 10 and perhaps 16 as well.
“The early start is not acceptable.”
