Residents raise dust and noise concerns over recycling at quarry site

More industrial recycling will be permitted at a quarry, where nearby residents have raised concerns about dust, noise and traffic.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s planning committee has approved an application for Heidelberg Materials UK to increase its recycling operations at the Machen Quarry site.

The firm plans to process construction and demolition waste, in addition to its current road planings operation, at a new location in the quarry.

Council planning officer Anthony Pyne said the works would be situated around 190 metres from the nearest homes, and added the quarry has a licence to operate in Machen until 2042.

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Limited

He said the maximum volume of waste processed at the site would be limited to 250,000 tonnes a year, and operating hours would be limited.

Cllr Chris Morgan, who represents the Machen and Rudry ward, spoke at the meeting to “raise the concerns of residents” opposed to the application.

He said people living near the quarry were concerned about various types of pollution, and “are worried this will worsen” if the recycling operation was ramped up.

Complaints included damage to properties, noise, seismic vibrations, dust and the movements of large lorries, Cllr Morgan told the committee.

He said residents sought assurances the construction and demolition waste proposed for the quarry would not include “hazardous” materials such as asbestos.

Planning agent Angela Collins, representing the applicant, said the principle of recycling at the quarry site “is well established”.

The new applicant represented a “continuation” of those works “at a location further away from properties”, she told the committee.

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Environmental permit

Regarding the residents’ concerns, Ms Collins said operations at the site “will be subject to the conditions of an environmental permit from Natural Resources Wales, who have offered no objection” to the application.

There will be “careful inspections” of the materials received for recycling, and it is “not in the operator’s interest” to handle asbestos, she added.

The planning committee’s members agreed with the officers’ recommendation to grant planning permission, subject to several conditions.