Haverhill recycling company submits planning bid weeks after appealing Suffolk County Council enforcement notice

A recycling company has submitted a planning bid weeks after appealing an enforcement notice which alleged multiple breaches.

Widdington Recycling Limited applied to Suffolk County Council (SCC) for retrospective permission to build a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at its site in Falconer Road, next to Spring Rise, Haverhill.

The application followed an enforcement notice served by the council in early December after it found the company in breach of seven conditions from its March 2013 planning permission — the notice has since been appealed.

SCC ordered the company to take down and remove buildings - an open-sided waste sorting building, weighbridge and weighbridge office, concrete batching plant, storage walling, hardstanding, drainage, boundary fencing/walls and lighting and the associated equipment comprising a silo, concrete mixer trucks and trommel.

According to the council's enforcement notice, complaints emerged about bad smells, flies and vermin because the site had taken and stored household, commercial, and garden waste, including decaying waste, despite only having permission to store materials arising from demolition activities.

Council officers visited the site during the summer of last year and found 'large quantities of household waste' with further visits.

Following investigations, the officers found out the operator was under contract to take residual kerbside waste from another county council.

According to the new planning papers, the site will only accept construction, demolition and commercial skip waste due to the complaints.

Cllr Joe Mason, of Haverhill, said: "It is appalling to put a retrospective application in — local residents have had to put up with that stink."

An odour impact assessment submitted alongside the application stated issues would be unlikely 'as a result of typical on-site operations'.

At a meeting of Haverhill Town Council last week, councillors agreed to ask the Planning Inspectorate to hold any inquiry on the issues in the town so affected businesses could have a say.

The application addresses several of the breaches outlined within the enforcement notice, including to do with its layout, unauthorised floodlighting, and removed landscape planting and maintenance.

Under the plans, waste stockpiles would be up to four metres high, which had already been required with the existing permission but were breached.

Operating hours would be between 6am and 6pm Monday to Friday, 6am and 2pm on Saturday, and no activity on Sunday or bank and public holidays — the existing condition relating to operating hours was among the breaches.

The site would be operated by 10 full-time and five part-time members of staff.

The company's planning statement describes the waste treatment facility as 'wholly appropriate' at the site which will ensure a more efficient and environmentally acceptable use.

The access road, currently unsurfaced, would be fully surfaced and lead onto a concreted area in front of the MRF building.