Recycling plant being built at 'rotten stink' landfill is taller, bigger and in a different location than permitted

A recycling plant being built at a controversial landfill quarry site is taller, bigger and in a different location than the permitted plans. Last year, Valencia Waste Management Ltd gained approval from Bury council to build a material recycling facility at Pilsworth Landfill, Pilsworth Road, Bury.

The firm has now said the plant, currently under construction is ‘materially different’ from the permitted development, which is on greenbelt land. In a fresh planning application submitted this week, Valencia said that the their plant is being built 15 metres south west of the permitted scheme.

They also revealed the building will be 13.3m in height rather than the approved 12.5m, its length will be 80.7m rather than the 72m permitted and the width of the plant is set to be 60.6m instead of 49m. Other changes to the Bury council approved plans are in configuration with the plant now rotated 90 degrees and the roof is now double pitched instead of single.

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Capacity at the plant will also be 250,000 tonnes of material per year rather than the 150,000 tonnes stated in the approved plans. The purpose of the plant is to intercept and extract recyclable materials from commercial and industrial waste heading for landfill.

Planners at Bury town hall will now decide on the revised plans and in theory could reject them and begin enforcement action as the partitally built plant is not as they permitted.

In their application however, Valencia argues the principle of development at the site has already been established by the previous approval.

The landfill site at Pilsworth, close to the M66, previously gained notoriety as locals complained for a number of years about foul smells. Politicians described it as ‘like being hit in the face’. Locals said they’d been left feeling sick, comparing the pong to the odour of ‘rotten meat’.

In March this year, Rochdale town hall leader Coun Neil Emmott joined Bury council boss Coun Eamonn O’Brien and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham in calling for the operator to be stripped of its licence. The Environment Agency, which has regulatory control over the site, installed new monitoring facilities to track air quality around the site.

In May, bosses said there were no plans to remove Valencia’s licence. Valencia have put forward their case for the revised design of the plant under construction in a planning statement attached their application.

It states: “Consent for a recycling facility at Pilsworth Landfill has already been established. “Following amendments made during the design process this planning statement seeks to regularise the material recycling facility that is currently under construction.

“The previous approval confirmed that the proposed development conformed to planning policy and there were no material considerations that would outweigh favourable planning support.” Planners at Bury Council will consider Valencia’s application in the coming weeks.