A site just yards from homes is being recommended by City Hall officials for use as a massive rubbish tip.

Today, residents who have fought the plans to dump millions of tonnes of household waste at Buck Park Quarry in Denholme, said: "We think it stinks from start to finish."

Villagers fear the tip will lead to pollution, smells, flies and traffic problems for the whole of Denholme, with heavy lorries thundering along narrow Whalley Lane and the busy A629 main road.

But it has been revealed the planning application put forward by Humberside-based company Wastewise will be recommended for approval by officers when it is considered by councillors next week.

And the 50-page report which will go to Bradford Council's Shipley area planning committee has sparked fresh anger.

Campaigners, who have organised a protest march and a petition supported by nearly 1,000 people, say their views have been steamrollered.

Sharon Makinson, of the Denholme Residents' Action Group which was formed to fight the application, said protesters were very unhappy about the recommendation.

"The last glimmer of hope that you might have held has gone. We think it stinks from start to finish," said Mrs Makinson, whose home is only 50 metres from the quarry.

The action group has liaised with residents in nearby Cullingworth, who say they have been plagued for years by smells and flies from an existing tip at Manywells Brow.

The Buck Park application is for up to 2.5 million tonnes of household waste to be tipped at the quarry over ten years. If it is approved, it will meet most of the landfill needs of Bradford district and effectively replace Manywells, which is almost full.

Wastewise says the tip, if approved, would eventually be covered over and the area restored to its former condition.

Bradford Councillor Simon Cooke (Con, Bingley Rural) said he was angry that the recommendation for approval seemed to ignore villagers' concerns.

"I'm really quite cross about the tone of the first part of the report in particular," he said.

"It strikes me that yet again the professionals have simply dismissed the objections as not to be considered. We are placing far greater weight on their views as against the hundreds of residents who have objected."

He claimed planning officers were passing the buck by saying that issues of odours and vermin were a matter for the Environment Agency.

If the plan is approved, Wastewise will have to apply for a waste management licence from the Environment Agency and work is unlikely to start on the tip until the summer of 2000 at the earliest.

Coun Cooke said: "They're saying it's nothing to do with us but planning permission must be concerned with the effect on neighbouring properties and there are at least 13 within 250 metres of this site."

The action group still plans to lobby the meeting at Shipley Town Hall next Monday in the hope of persuading councillors to go against the advice of planning officers.

Councillor Eileen Sinclair (Lab, Bingley), who chairs the committee, said: "I am in some ways sympathetic to the residents' concerns and they will most certainly be taken into account. It's something that needs a great deal of deep thinking."

Denholme's Town Mayor Councillor Russell Driver said the village appeared to have been given a raw deal by Bradford Council.

He said: "I think people in the village will be very disappointed. We're now in the hands of the committee members. The nails are in the coffin but they haven't been banged tight shut yet."

T&A Opinion

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