Waste Recycling Plant Expansion Approved Despite Health and Traffic Concerns

Nottinghamshire County Council's planning and rights of way committee has granted permission to increase the annual amount of waste tonnage going through the Bunny Materials Recycling Facility by 150,000 tonnes, from 100,000 to 250,000 tonnes. This expansion comes despite health and traffic concerns raised by residents and councillors. The site, operated by Johnson Aggregates, will now accept inert construction and demolition waste and incinerator bottom ash (IBA) for recycling. Local residents have expressed concerns about the increased traffic and potential health impacts, citing the facility's history of underutilization and the fact that 86% of the waste comes from outside the county.

Key Takeaways:

• The Bunny Materials Recycling Facility will expand from 100,000 to 250,000 tonnes of waste per year, despite health and traffic concerns.
• The facility will accept inert construction and demolition waste and incinerator bottom ash (IBA) for recycling.
• 86% of the waste processed at the facility comes from outside Nottinghamshire.
• The increased traffic will result in the number of lorries passing through the site more than doubling, with up to 1,440 lorry movements per day.
• The facilities operating hours will be extended to include Sundays and bank holidays between 9am and 4pm, with waste deliveries being the only activity allowed.
• The expansion is expected to create between 12 and 15 full-time jobs.
• The County Council's VIA noise engineer raised no noise concerns for the extra lorry movements, and air quality studies were deemed acceptable.
• The applicant will update the dust management plan.

Statistics:

• 150,000: the increase in tonnes of waste per year that the facility will accept.
• 100,000: the current annual tonnage limit of waste at the facility.
• 250,000: the new annual tonnage limit of waste at the facility.
• 1,440: the maximum number of lorry movements in and out of the site per day.
• 550: the current number of lorry movements in and out of the site per day.
• 86%: the percentage of waste processed at the facility that comes from outside Nottinghamshire.
• 60%: the percentage of the extra lorries expected to bypass Bunny village.
• 30%: the percentage of the extra lorries expected to go through Bunny village.

Sources:

• Nottinghamshire County Council meeting on Tuesday
• Johnson Aggregates, site operator
• Rebecca Ferguson, local resident
• Jonathan Smith, development manager at the county council
• Andy Edyvean, Rushcliffe borough councillor (Con)