No time to waste as site details filled in

A wish list of 28 sites where companies want to set up waste operations has been published by Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent planners.

The list is part of a major consultation in the development of a strategy to deal with Staffordshire waste for the next 15 to 20 years. Household waste is only 15 per cent of the total 4.2 million tonnes of waste produced in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent annually. Commercial, industrial, construction and demolition waste make up the rest.

The county and city councils are building a complete picture of where the waste industry wants to locate recycling plants, waste treatment centres, landfills, composting operations and energy from waste facilities.

The next stage is to plan ahead and ensure that the area gets the sites it needs in the right place. Everyone in the community will get the chance to have a say.

Staffordshire County Council's planning committee chairman Councillor Roger Smith said it would be a long time before any decisions would be made.

"We are all producing more waste than ever and it has to be dealt with somewhere. If we don't provide the capacity in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, then we will be storing up problems and costs for the future.

"That's why planning is so important. It's very early days and we still have to do a lot of analysis before we start the consultation rolling with local communities. It's a long a difficult job and could take over a year or more of discussion and debate. That's why we need people who are interested to sign up now so we can involve them all the way through," he said.

For more go to Staffordshire County Council's website at www.staffordshire.gov.uk.

Among the sites proposed by industry are: Ivy House Farm, land at Walton Farm, part of Hixon Airfield, Stafford borough; land east or Orbital Way and the Poplars landfill site, Cannock; Cocksparrow Lane, Yew Tree Coal site, Hollybank Quarry, Brookside Farm, Wolverhampton Road, Coven Composting and land adjacent to A460, South Staffordshire and land at Buck Head Farm, Shireoak Quarry, Hints Quarry, Weeford, Manor Farm, Wall and Green Planet Recycling, Lichfield.