Hills is here to stay (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Hills is here to stay

3:30pm Thursday 19th April 2012 in Letters

In response to the open letter from Coun Alan Hill (April 12) regarding Hills Waste Solutions’ planning application for the Lower Compton site, I would like to take this opportunity to point out a substantial factual inaccuracy.

Coun Hill states that “all the current permissions and licenses relating to the whole site... are due to expire between 2016 and 2022.”

In fact, permanent permission exists for waste treatment and transfer on the area currently occupied by the composting, wood chipping and waste transfer activities. The whole idea behind the current planning application is to obtain permission to construct buildings that enable these permanent activities to be enclosed and consequently carried out in a more environmentally acceptable way, which reduces both airborne emissions and waste to landfill.

The household recycling centre, which provides a valuable service to the residents of Calne and the surrounding area, is also a permanent facility. This site receives almost 4,000 tonnes of household waste from people who would otherwise have to travel to Devizes, Marlborough or Stanton St Quintin to recycle and dispose of bulky waste.

These permanent activities have been developed over time at the site by Hills as a sustainable alternative to landfilling waste.

As such, the traffic associated with these activities will be expected to continue beyond 2022, and the waste management and mineral extraction activities will continue to be well managed by Hills and highly regulated by the Planning Authority, the Environment Agency and other statutory bodies.

Mike Webster, Group director, Hills Waste Solutions Limited.