Calls for a rethink of waste plant proposals

Doncaster Council is proposing a new site on Sandall Stones Road in Kirk Sandall where waste will be dropped off for a short time before being moved off to another location for processing. It is also proposed that recycling would also be stored there before being transferred.

The authority has previously said that the project is still in its early stages and held a number of public consultation meetings earlier this year.

Campaigners say they do not dispute the need for such a site but argue it would be better to locate it closer to the motorway or a railway line, not near housing, businesses and in an area which they claim does not have adequate transport links.

Ken Manning, who has concerns about the project, said: “Our main concern is its location. We think that there’s a need for a waste transfer station but we just think its in the wrong place.”

Coun Christine Mills, the council’s cabinet member for environment and waste, earlier said the transfer plant would improve the efficiency of waste collection and transportation in the borough - potentially saving thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

“From 2015 most of Doncaster’s non-recyclable waste will go to a new site in Rotherham where it will be processed into fuel,” she said. “It would be very inefficient and costly for refuse vehicles to keep making journeys to and from Rotherham. So the proposal is for the waste to be taken to a new site on Sandall Stones Road in Kirk Sandall where it will be dropped off temporarily in a purpose built industrial building before being loaded into articulated lorries and taken to Rotherham.”

The authority says the new waste transfer station would enable Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils improve how waste is managed and disposed of. The new site in Rotherham will be a “one-stop shop” for waste from the three councils, with the waste being processed into fuel.