South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | June | 3
From the Gazette, first published Friday 3rd Jun 2005.
THORNBURY Town council has changed its stance on a proposed composting site near the town, while the applicant claims a site meeting was interrupted by angry protestors
When the original application to turn Morton Farm into a composting site for green waste was submitted to South Gloucestershire Council by Greenwaste Management Services Ltd, members of the town council made no objections.
But since visiting the site and hearing the strength of opinion against the proposal, councillors have agreed to object.
At Thornbury Town Council's town development meeting on Tuesday resident Julian Wheldon told councillors: "We are all in favour of composting but we think this is the wrong place to do it. Morton Farm couldn't be worse situated. Wherever the waste comes from it is going to have to travel quite a distance to get here, congesting the roads."
After listening to concerns, committee chairman Cllr Terry Ray said: "My own view in the end is that it is not a sensible site. My main concern is one of expansion. I feel that if that site was started it could be turned into something bigger.
"I suggest we write to South Gloucestershire Council reversing our opinion as it now seems to me that we should be objecting to this scheme."
Objections include the proximity of neighbouring houses, listed buildings on the site, reliability of the composting process, monitoring of storage and the distance waste would be travelling.
Last Friday, members of South Gloucestershire Council's development control (west) sites inspection committee visited Morton Farm to assess the site's suitability as composting facility.
The Pilning-based applicants claim that as councillors tried to board their minibus a scuffle broke out between a protestor and a group of councillors.
Director Martin Gill said the scenes were the latest actions in a long running battle to get a composting site near Thornbury.
He said: "There has been local concern about the impact of our proposed site so we held an open day for the public to come and see for themselves . "We are a legitimate business delivering much-needed composting sites in the area but we now feel we are being victimised by a small group of people who aren't interested in discussing our plans.
"All our activities are carefully monitored by three separate regulators and we will be composting green waste from around the area to spread on local farmland to improve its quality. Claims that we will be polluting the environment are nonsense."
Thornbury councillor Cllr Clare Fardell, who is a member of the sites inspection committee, said the incident had no impact on the meeting and occurred because one resident was upset he didn't get to express his objections.
Members of the development control (west) committee will make a decision on the application on July 7.
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