Villagers' waste site challenge to council (From Western Telegraph)

Villagers' waste site challenge to council

Villagers opposed to the planned waste recycling centre at Johnston have issued a challenge to Pembrokeshire County Council.

Residents had travelled to Welshpool courtesy of the authority to see an existing recycling centre in action.

They now want the council to consider their proposal - to site the development away from their village at Lawrence Landfill.

Johnston community councillor Ken Rowlands, who chairs the new committee set up to look at this alternative, threw down the gauntlet to the county council this week. "Those of us who could, went along to Welshpool as the county council requested and formed our own conclusions of what we saw,'' he said. "What we now say to the councillors and the officers is come with us to Lawrence Landfill to see the potential of that site.

"It answers all the criteria. It is adjacent to an existing waste tip and a railhead and it has good road links. The council can't just dismiss it.'' The county council wants to develop Pembrokeshire's first recycling centre at the former Arnold's Scrapyard in the centre of Johnston.

But villagers insist the site is unsuitable, citing the noise, traffic congestion and smells they fear it will generate.

Although they were impressed with the Cae'r Post Recycling Facility at Welshpool they pointed out that it was four times smaller than the proposed development at Johnston. It was also on the edge of a small hamlet.

"It is a completely different scenario,'' said Councillor Rowlands. "The proposal for Johnston is of significantly larger scale.''

He suggested that finance was the key to the council favouring Arnold's Yard. It had indicated that Objective One money could be available for this site. "They seem to suggest that this is the only way forward,'' he said. "However, Cae'r Post was funded without Objective One funding and received grants from other government sources.''

The proposed site would include a base for Pembrokeshire FRAME Ltd, a community recycling project which promotes and provides education and training for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities. The organisation is currently based at Brickhurst Business Park, Johnston.

Councillor Rowlands applauded the concept of FRAME but was adamant that Arnold's Scrapyard was not the right site for it.

"The centre of the village is not the appropriate site for all the reasons we have already given to the authority,'' he said.