8:10am Saturday 17th September 2011
By Jo Winrow
Residents are being asked to have their say on a shortlist of nine sites across the district which are potential locations for waste management plants.
Consultation on an earlier list saw hundreds of signatures collected in petitions against the two most controversial sites – and they have now been removed from an amended list.
Land at Belton Road, Silsden, drew the most opposition, with more than 2,000 people signing a petition about having a possible waste plant close to their homes. A site at Ingleby Road, Girlington, has also been taken off the revised list after a petition.
Bradford Council looked again at the initial seven sites which had been identified as being suitable for a waste treatment facility.
Three from the initial seven remain – Princeroyd Way, Ingleby Road, Listerhills; Ripley Road, Bowling; and Bowling Back Lane household waste site.
A further six have been added to the shortlist – Hollingwood Lane, Paradise Green; two sites at Staithgate Lane, Odsal; Aire Valley Road, Worth Village, Keighley; Merrydale Road, Euroway Trading Estate; and Steel Stock and Scrapholders, Birkshall Lane, Bowling.
Feedback on the methods used to assess the sites has prompted the Council to make a number of changes, which has seen all the sites being reassessed against the new criteria.
Yesterday’s meeting of the Council’s executive agreed to send the new plan out to consultation for 12 weeks.
Julian Jackson, the Council’s assistant director of planning, told the meeting: “Our methodology has altered which has resulted in a revised shortlist that contains some new sites.”
Councillor Val Slater, the Council’s executive member responsible for planning, said: “I think it’s important to stress we must have a plan for where waste sites can be located. If we don’t, developers could build anywhere.
“This is part of a whole raft of documents that we will be considering at future meetings and this is not the final document.”
If agreed, the proposed nine sites will be set out in the Council’s Waste Management Development Plan Document, which is aimed at producing an effective management strategy for all types of waste for the next 15 to 20 years. It will eventually form part of the Local Development Framework, which will ultimately replace the Replacement Unitary Development Plan blueprint for the district.
Any or all of the sites could potentially be developed and used for dealing with differing types of waste, including municipal, commercial and recycling. And any plant that may be built as part of the Council’s £400 million 25-year contract to deal with the district’s municipal waste would need to comply with the document. The Bowling Bank Lane waste transfer station and household waste recycling centre, which is the proposed location, is one of the nine on the revised list that is to be consulted upon.
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