Bid to tip tonnes of waste on farmland (From Ilkley Gazette)

Fears raised as plan could result in 30 lorries a day visiting site

10:01am Thursday 24th May 2012 in Local news By Amanda Greaves

A cross-boundary agreement is being sought to guarantee plans to tip thousands of tonnes of waste on farmland do not result in dozens of trucks on village roads.

Councillors in West Yorkshire are in talks with North Yorkshire County Council over a plan to dump up to 32,000 tonnes of soil and inert waste a year into a ravine on grazing land at Farfield Farm, Bolton Road, Addingham.

The operation could result in as many as 30 trucks coming to the site on some days, with the operation lasting up to five years.

Tenant farmer Philip Barker has applied for permission from North Yorkshire County Council for the operation, on the Duke of Devonshire’s land.

Mr Barker says the land, currently grazed by sheep, includes a steep ravine which cannot be worked with modern farm machinery. Filling in the ravine will enable machinery to safely access the site, cutting down weeds and gorse and would “enhance and improve” the landscape by creating grassland, he says.

Although a traffic management plan proposes directing trucks along the B6160 from the A59 Bolton Abbey roundabout, there are concerns about the influx of heavy vehicles.

Bradford Council planners told their North Yorkshire counterparts they were concerned about the potential impact of up to 60 heavy goods vehicle movements a day on the surrounding road network. They asked for an agreed route to be fixed via a planning condition or legal agreement.

North Yorkshire has discussed a Section 106 agreement, specifying the access route, with the applicant. But Bradford councillor Adrian Naylor (Ind, Craven) is concerned the agreement may not be binding in West Yorkshire.

Coun Naylor told Addingham Parish Council that soil and stone could be shipped from the Tesco development site in Ilkley to the farmland, and he is concerned trucks approaching Addingham from the Ilkley area may still end up cutting through the village.

He has been talks with North Yorkshire and Bradford Council planners “What I’m saying is, the Section 106 agreement is with North Yorkshire. Does the mechanism work when it isn’t in their area?” he said.

Mr Barker told the Gazette the trucks would “absolutely categorically not” go through Addingham.

Addingham Parish Council, which has already expressed concerns to North Yorkshire about the impact of heavy vehicles on the B6160, plans to approach the authority again.