Waste site gets the nod in spite of ‘smelly mile’ fears
AWASTE transfer station is set to be built in Widnes despite a local councillor’s fears over her ward being dubbed ‘the smelly mile’.
The council’s development management committee rubberstamped proposals by ASH Waste Ltd for the facility on MacDermott Road at the West Bank dock industrial estate.
It will process 75,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste a year, most of which will primarily be trade waste collected from businesses within Halton and Merseyside.
But in a letter read out at the meeting held at the DCBL Stadium in Widnes, Central and West Bank councillor Pam Wallace, said: “Residents are making their views known that this council and the planning committee do not care and are letting Halton become a waste dumping ground.
“Please prove them wrong on this occasion.”
“Our legacy is of industry and contamination which precedes us, often comments from visitors passing through parts of Widnes mainly West Bank have earned us the name of the ‘smelly mile’, a phase which locals residents resent.
“We need to lose this label, look forward and make this borough thrive.”
But Neil Hassall, managing director at ASH Group, said the company was a local employer and that the facility would create new jobs, he added: “All of our sites are categorized as band A sites by the Environment Agency, band A being the best. This is something we are proud of and puts us in the top five per cent of sites.”
Committee member Cllr Dave Thompson told the meeting that odours were an issue for the Environment Agency, and that the committee had to judge applications on planning grounds.
He said: “We need the Environment
Agency to be doing their job. I’d like know what they’re doing in places like this.
“Halton as a borough has improved beyond belief since 1974, but this issue of odour – in this day and age – we’re still talking about it.
“I just think they’ve got to do a job and step up to the mark.”