Recycling facilities rejected over noise and habitat impact concern
From: 'Planning'21 March 2008 (Development Control Casebook)
Plans for a recycled materials storage building and bunkers at a waste transfer station in Leicestershire have been rejected on the grounds that they would create noise nuisance and harm the local landscape and ecology.
Part of the appeal site was used in relation to the operator’s contracts with the local authority for kerbside collection of recyclable materials. The proposal would allow unloading, sorting and bulking of collected materials to take place inside the building before baled material was stored outside in the concrete bunkers.
The Inspector observed that there was a watercourse running between the site and a common identified by the council as a site of district-level ecological significance, as well as a pond lying within 500m of the site. He noted that a number of protected species had been recorded on the common and that there was potential for them to be present in the watercourse.
Having regard to PPS9 and circular 06/2005, he gave substantial weight to the development’s potential effect on protected species and their habitats. The appellant’s suggestion that conditions could be imposed was not the correct approach when there was a reasonable chance of protected species being present and affected by the development, he ruled.
DCS Number 100-053-416
Inspector Brian Cook: Inquiry