A Belvedere waste site is pushing plans for an extra 110,000 tonnes of junk to be delivered via Bexley’s roads.

The owners of the Norman Road plant are already bringing in 660,000 tonnes of waste per year by river but want to boost its share by road up to 195,000 tonnes - a 129 per cent increase.

Permission for the site was granted 10 years ago.

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RRRL is seeking permission to amend the amount of permitted waste to be transported by road to a maximum of 195,000 tonnes per year

It was heard at a council meeting that the energy waste company, Cory, which oversees the operators Riverside Resource Recovery Limited (RRRL), wants an additional 56 trucks - or an average of 4 vehicle trips an hour - brought to Bexley’s roads.

The motion was put forward chiefly to mitigate the possible loss of its contract at Northumberland Wharf in Tower Hamlets.

Cory currently processes 100,000 tonnes of waste per annum onto the river via Northumberland Wharf.

It is worried that it may lose access to its Northumberland site if its owners, the council of Tower Hamlets, decides to operate its own waste contract.

Head of Development Control, Sue Clarke, attempted to placate concerns’ of councillors over congestion and environmental issues at the planning meeting last Thursday (November 10).

She said: “I don’t think I need to tell members about the historic fight we had about this being approved.

“There are a whole raft of things we need to keep under control.”

“Even if this were allowed the percentage coming by road would still be less than 25 per cent so it’s still true that the substantive part of the waste being brought to the site will continue to be brought by river.

“In terms of the transport network, air quality and in terms of noise impact… there are no adverse impacts from the relatively small increase in lorry movements each day.”

News Shopper:
Cory is set to dispose of 660,000 tonnes of waste by river this year

An RRRL application to increase the annual waste throughput from 670,000 tonnes to 785,000 tonnes was recommended by council members last year.

Mr Andy Pike, director of Cory’s operations within London, attempted to persuade councillors about the pressures his company faced.

He said: “This application is not aimed at reducing the transport of waste by river, rather it seeks to provide a proportionate level of contingency in the event of a loss of access to a river wharf.

“And to allow greater scope for the delivery of locally regenerated commercial industrial waste which currently has to travel long distances out of the area for treatment or disposal due to the existing cap on waste deliveries arriving by road.”

However strong opposition was launched against Mr Pike’s plea.

Cllr David Leaf said: “I have some quite grave reservations about this application.

“The contingency was for emergency only in terms of being able to use the road network.

“What concerns me is in relation to issue about the Northumberland Wharf being out, now clearly if you are a big business making a huge investment, we’re talking hundreds of millions of pounds, you would do your risk analysis and you would calculate what would happen if one of our main wharfs go out?

“Clearly there hasn’t been any contingency planning and Bexley residents are going to end up feeling the brunt of that.

“I’m very concerned and apprehensive about that.”

Concerns were also raised by cllr Joe Ferreira, cllr Alan Deadman with stipulations over using main roads and operating hours bandied about by cllr Colin Tandy.

Cllr John Davey said: “It’s really important we get this right, we need to know what traffic will be like across the whole borough.”

The Highways officer confirmed that no impact assessments had been made outside the road’s main junctions to the site.

Cory is already on track for disposing of 660,000 tonnes of waste by river this year in Bexley - a 10 per cent increase over the past two years.

The council has deferred its decision until a later date.