RICHARD BATSON A planned recycling plant which turns food and garden waste into compost will not be a nuisance its concerned neighbours have been assured.

RICHARD BATSON

A planned recycling plant which turns food and garden waste into compost will not be a nuisance its concerned neighbours have been assured.

The project near Aylsham will be the focus of a public meeting on Monday after villagers at Marsham raised concerns including lorry traffic, smells, noise and dust.

But the would-be operators have said the facility would be strictly controlled and residents should have no fears.

Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (News) plan to run the unit as a development of their recycling complex at Costessey and to replace a satellite site at Mayton Wood near Coltishall whose lease runs out in 2009.

It would be at an old piggery owned by farmer Roger Crane, with the resultant compost being spread across his farm fields.

Inside a “sealed” shed, lorries laden with a mix of garden waste and plate scrapings would be tipped, and the refuse put into concrete vessels, where it rotted for a couple of weeks, with the odour drawn off through a biological filter, and the liquor sludge either recycled in to the system or tankered away to sewage treatment plants.

The compost like material was then spread over a large outside area, where it was mechanically turned over for another four to six weeks, before being used on the land.

News local authority contracts manager Steve Jenkins said the refuse would come from north Norfolk and Broadland bins, containing 90pc garden and 10pc food waste.

Many of the trucks, up to 10 a day when it running at full capacity handling 48,000 tonnes a year, were already going to the composting facility at Mayton Wood, and would simply be turning a different direction off the A140 road, down the sparsely populated Buxton Road.

He could understand the concerns of local people, but the site was a mile from the village and the Marsham Heath Site of Special Scientific Interest and the controls in place should ensure there was no impact.

The plant was a key part of initiatives countywide to increase recycling, as landfill sites filled up, landfill taxes rose, and recycling targets increased.

Up to half of the rubbish going in normal household bins, currently going to landfill, was food waste, which could be handled using the new plant.

A new multi million pound mechanical biological treatment plant was also being built at Costessey and by 2011 would be sifting and rotting general waste into compost, but which is less pure and not usable in agriculture. So News say there is also a need for Marsham to provide a range of processes and recycled products.

The public meeting is at Marsham village hall on Monday at 7.30pm, with representatives from News, and Mr Crane, attending to explain the plans.