In response to J Laing’s letter last week I would like to point out the following facts.

The Materials Recovery Facility is located in Lower Compton.

Previous planning applications for this site have not been withdrawn, they remain undetermined by the Waste Planning Authority. It is Hills’ intention, however, to withdraw those applications once this new, smaller planning application has been registered.

Vehicles from the east of the county will not go through Calne. In addition, Hills is undertaking a transport assessment to support its planning application which will give full consideration to the designation of an Air Quality Management Area in parts of Calne.

Providing modern, adequate facilities to deal with household recycling forms an important part of the county’s infrastructure. The Lower Compton site has been identified as a strategic waste management site in the adopted Wiltshire and Swindon Waste Site Allocations Local Plan (February 2013) and is also a key operational site in the context of Wiltshire’s Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2012.

The five-week pre-planning consultation closed on July 11 and Hills is considering the feedback received before submitting its final planning application to the planning department.

As with all planning applications, Mr Laing will have an opportunity to submit his comments directly to the Waste Planning Authority once they have registered the application and made it available online via their planning portal.

M Webster, Group director, Hills Waste Solutions.