Controversial plans to extend a waste station on the Moss estate have been recommended for refusal by council bosses.
Joe Henshaw, owner and founder of Henshaws Waste Management, wants to extend his operating hours.
Work on the site, at 150 Moss Lane, is currently restricted to 7.30am-6pm Monday to Fridays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.
However the firm is applying for this to be extended to include 1pm-5pm on Saturdays and 8am-4.30pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
In a separate application, they have also applied for permission to extend the site into land next door at 140 Moss Lane. The applications were first lodged in July last year and are finally set to be heard, by the council’s strategic planning board, more than a year later, on August 22.
A petition and in excess of 100 letters of objection were received from local residents against the plan which they say will create traffic chaos and cause too much noise and disruption.
Mr Henshaw says the move will allow him to create 15 new jobs as well as purchase a new picking station.
But council planning officers have recommended both applications for refusal.
A report prepared in relation to the first application says: "It is considered that permitting seven day week working, including bank holidays, and the associated increase in traffic, change in nature of traffic over this extended period, together with the increase in site activity, noise and disruption over these times is likely to result in detrimental harm to the amenity of local residents and their living conditions, particularly due to increased noise and disturbance."
The strategic planning board will make the final decision and can go against the recommendation if they wish.
The council’s waste department currently uses Henshaws to transfer waste, on a contract costing around £43,000 a month until 2014. They turned to the company after work on their own waste transfer station at Lyme Green was abandoned, a fiasco currently subject to an external investigation.
However the Henshaws agreement was drawn up based on the site’s current capacity and it is understood it would be unaffected by the committee’s decision.
