LETTER: Four objections to landfill site not hundreds

Wakefield Council’s planning committee did approve the application from FCC Environment to extend the operating life of the Welbeck Landfill Site. However, there were only four objections to FCC’s Welbeck application and no objections from any of the statutory bodies which regulate this site – not the hundreds referred to in a letter published here recently.

We are not aware of any plans to build an incinerator. But, because we have a legal requirement to deal with all planning applications following the statutory planning process defined by the government, we cannot make any promises about what we will or won’t allow until this process has been completed.

There have also been recent headlines about Health Environment Services Ltd (HES) which runs a private waste disposal site in Normanton.

This is completely separate to the Welbeck Landfill Site. The Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for monitoring and regulating the HES site. Wakefield Council has no statutory powers relating to the regulation of waste for this site.

Neil Rodgers, service director for planning, transportation and highways