I do not know how Mike Webster of Hills Waste can claim to be “confident that vehicle movements and air quality in Calne have been addressed” in its latest planning application for Lower Compton (Gazette & Herald, November 13). Hills’ own figures say that there will be 116,000 HGVs a year travelling to and from the site in 2015. This is 20 per cent more than the 97,000 in their original massive 2011 application and an increase on current levels.

Hills claim to have listened to the concerns of local residents and reduced the tonnages but it is difficult to see how. Where exactly is the reduction? And how can air quality have been addressed when they are adding more vehicles to a town where air quality is already over legal limits?

I appreciate the role Hills plays in recycling Wiltshire’s waste and the permanent consents at Lower Compton will ensure that the valuable household recycling centre will remain in operation.

However, these new proposals are on a scale well beyond that required to satisfy Wiltshire and are effectively an operation that imports waste and recyclables from all over the county, sorts it, bulks it up and then re-exports it in massive HGVs to processing factories and waste to energy plants.

This is very different kind of business to what was proposed when the initial temporary permissions were given on this site. All 116,000 HGV movements a year will have to pass through Lower Compton and the majority through Calne town centre before making their way through the county.

The Wiltshire Highways department need to have their heads examined if they truly believe that the impacts of 116,000 HGVs are going to be “modest”. Perhaps they should spend a bit more time checking the figures rather than worrying about the number of parking spaces and recommending “financial incentives for staff to travel to and from work by sustainable means”.

I call on you to object to this application. Email developmentmanagement@wiltshire.gov.uk quoting application 14/09744/WCM or use the Wiltshire Council planning website.

Julian Miller, Quemerford, Calne.