‘We can smell the landfill from two miles away – we don’t need another tip’
Frustrated residents have hit out at plans to build a new recycling centre on a site already used for landfill in Bury[1]’s green belt
Valencia Waste Management wish to develop land at the Pilsworth South Quarry near Pilsworth Road, just to the east of the M66 motorway.
The site is located within the borough’s green belt and is used for landfill disposal. The proposed steel-framed materials recycling plant measuring 52 metres by 39 metres would be located on land to the west of the office buildings on the site and would extract recyclables and inert materials from being deposited on the landfill.
The plant would be accessed from the existing road junction to the landfill site and the plant would be removed from the site during the restoration of the landfill. Bury Council received five letters of objection from nearby residents.
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They raised the concerns including odour from the landfill saying ‘it is smelt from up to two miles away’. Another stated odour and flies from the property are ‘horrendous’ and said air quality has been noticeably poor within the last decade as a result of smell from the landfill.
Another described the site not as a landfill but ‘an artificially created mountain, an uncapped and stinking eyesore’. Others raised concern that the proposal will cause further traffic around junction 3 of the M66 and add to traffic congestion on Pilsworth Road and Croft Lane.
The recycling plant is earmarked for a current landfill site in Pilsworth
A Bury Council planning officer report argued that despite its location the application should be supported. It said: “Although the application involves inappropriate development in the green belt, the submission includes a satisfactory case for ‘very special’ circumstances to justify the development.
“The proposals seek to undertake an activity which is directly linked to the existing landfill and can therefore be considered to be ancillary to the current activities on site. The proposed development is also temporary in nature and does not prevent the restoration of the site in the future as the building andmachinery will be removed prior to the cessation of landfilling.”
Members of Bury’s planning committee will decide on the plans at a meeting next week.