Frustration as Cornwall waste site expansion plans approved

Plans to expand operations at a waste management site have been approved.

The proposals to expand the site at Connon Bridge in Cornwall had been met with strong opposition from parish councils in the surrounding area.

Doug Mills, from St Pinnock Parish Council, said Cornwall Council considered food waste to be more important than residents.

Members of Cornwall Council's planning committee said there was no planning reason to refuse.

The planning report said the application for a new waste reception facility, made by Cornwall Energy Recovery, sought "to enhance recycling by providing facilities to help separate food scraps from black bag waste".

Mr Mills said residents had lived with the waste transfer station at Connon Bridge, near Liskeard, for 50 years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

He said: "Why are we being singled out as Cornwall Council's dumping ground?

"We are being overridden because food scraps matter but we don't."

The expansion could see the number of vehicle movements to and from the site rise to more than 200 a day but the permission granted sets an average of 180 vehicles in and out per day over a three-month period.

Members of the council's strategic planning committee said they sympathised with the concerns, but there were no planning reasons to refuse.

Louis Gardner, Conservative member for Newquay Central and Pentire, said: "Wouldn't it be great if we had an anaerobic food digester in Cornwall? Yes it would. But this is what we have got.

"It seems to me that it would be appropriate for it to go on a site that is already used for waste management."

Andrew Mitchell, Independent member for St Ives West and Towednack, said it was a difficult application, but it was important to have facilities in place to improve waste management.

The committee agreed to approve planning permission with conditions including a limit on the amount of waste taken to the site.

Current consents at the site already authorise waste handling and processing up until the end of 2036 with the former landfill area having closed and now undergoing restoration.

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