Residents' concern over recycling unit's expansion

A recycling site in a Sheffield suburb will be expanded despite objections from local residents.

The city council has granted permission for a new processing plant at Beeley Wood Recycling Village in Middlewood, and the site can also increase its operating hours.

The centre's owners, Blue Phoenix, recover minerals and metals from incinerator ash and turn the matter into construction materials.

Hugh Blunkett, who lives on the nearby Wadsley Park Village development, said: "We just feel like we've not been listened to, we have major issues with noise and dust already. We need them to be good neighbours."

Blue Phoenix have managed the site since 2008, and plan to redevelop it in two phases after consent was approved.

According to the application submitted to Sheffield City Council, the first phase "seeks to enlarge the existing site by incorporating an additional 1.35 hectares of land located to the east".

They also propose to increase the height of the existing and proposed new stock piles from the previous approved eight metres, up to 12 metres, and to increase the amount of incinerator bottom ash (IBA) being processed through the site from 200,000 tonnes per annum to 300,000 tonnes.

The second phase is a new processing plant facility, and then the demolition of the existing processing plant on site. The applicant added that the development would create two additional full-time jobs.

There were 71 written objections to application, including from a number of residents of Wadsley Park Village.

Jane Thompson said: "I think when we first moved here it was peaceful but it's got noisier and noisier.

"The dust that comes across from the big ash pile is a health concern, our youngest daughter has breathing issues so we worry about whether it might be safe and we've had no reassurances."

Mr Blunkett, 44, attended the council committee meeting to voice his objections. He said: "The piles of ash are already getting higher and higher, the machines seem to be getting more industrial and there are more HGV trucks passing through."

Mr Blunkett's highlighted the "noise pollution" as his biggest concern.

"We're at the same level as the site across the valley so the sound is amplified, it's like an ampitheatre. You're sat out in the garden or walking to the car, you hear these huge bangs."

Chris Rowan, 64, was concerned about the environmental impact of the expansion.

"It's slap bang in the middle of a residential area, we're above the River Don here and we have salmon coming back. It feels like the wrong place, there are so many redundant industrial waste grounds in Sheffield; why expand here?"

In granting the application, the council accepted that an increase in the height of the stockpile would see a "relatively minor visual impact" affecting a number of receptors over a considerable area.

The committee concluded that the expansion represented "a useful addition to the waste treatment capacity".

The BBC has approached Blue Phoenix for comment.

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