Deadline looms on landfill extension

The waste disposal business's operating company has applied for a permit to enable it to use the extra 35 hectares for which it received planning permission last December.

The approval nearly doubles the size of the site to 81ha along the A29 Lidsey Road,

But before Lidsey Landfill Ltd, jointly owned by large waste firms Sita and Veolia, can make use of the extra land it has to change the integrated pollution prevention control permit for the site.

The permit controls the emissions which can be released from the landfill as a result of the waste being broken down over the years.

The application is being considered by the Enviro-nment Agency.

It has set a deadline of June 7 for public comments to be made to its Bedford office.

Alison Lindley, of Lidsey Road, said people did not realise the permit variation provided another opportunity to speak out about the landfill operation.

'I have spoken to people on Hook Lane 250 metres away from the landfill who don't know about this. Some people don't even know the landfill is there,' she stated.

'Others think it is finished and they certainly don't know what is happening.

'Everybody thinks that now planning permission has been granted the extension is a done deal but they have this last chance to comment.

'If they have concerns, they should raise them now so the Environment Agency have to address their concerns.

'If the public raise those concerns, it's the only way we can make sure the agency ensures that the controls are in place to keep the landfill safe.'

Mrs Lindley moved into her home with its rear garden about 250m from the landfill's boundary a year before the operation started in 1990.

It occupied 26 hectares before an extension added a further 20 hectares in 1995.

Widespread protests failed to stop the plans being approved. The landfill was intended to be closed this month. But the operating company applied last year for permission to keep it open.

This was granted by a government planning inspector after a planning appeal following an initial rejection of the scheme. The site should now close on December 1, 2012, but the emissions are likely to continue until about 2060.

Mrs Lindley said the legal processes involved in waste management deterred all but the most determined individual. The variation information filled two large files on top of the two large files needed for the original application.

A recent public notice about the proposed variation in the Observer failed to provide any further enlightenment even though it was written to conform with the legal requirements.

'The whole process shuts out the public as far as I am concerned. They would not know what it was about from reading the public notice,' explained Mrs Lindley.

She has raised her concerns about the continuing emissions with the Health Protection Agency as well as the Environment Agency.

She is a member of the Lidsey Liaison Group which brings the Environment Agency, West Sussex County Council and Aldingbourne Parish Council with the landfill company's consultants.