Bid to reverse landfill site plans withdrawn

Planning has been granted for the continued use of Wright's Pit North until 2030

A bid to reverse the granting of permission to continue using a landfill site has been withdrawn after it was confirmed an inspector was not misled.

Planning permission was recently granted for the continued disposal of waste at a site in Bride until 2030.

But the Department of Infrastructure (DOI) has insisted it is urgently seeking a replacement for Wright's Pit North to accept the island's construction waste.

Daphne Caine MHK had planned to call for that permission to be revoked, but has withdrawn the Tynwald motion after the planning inspector confirmed that progress had not influenced the extension.

Permission for disposing waste at the site expired at the end of 2019, but the DOI's bid to extend its life was approved by the Council of Ministers after it was recommended in a planning inspector's independent report.

'Pointless exercise'

Ms Caine said while she would not now seek to have the permission annulled, she remained "extremely concerned about the appropriateness of disposing of contaminated construction and demolition waste in an unlined site".

Last week, planning inspector Jennifer Vyse said there was no record of plans for a replacement site having been submitted, despite reference to it in her report.

Any progress on finding an alternative site to Wright's Pit North "had no bearing" on her final recommendation for its continued use, Ms Vyse added.

Ms Caine said, in light of that, annulling the planning approval for the extended use of the site would be "a pointless exercise".

Doing so would lead to the "repeated cost of another independent planning inquiry" and leave the island with no disposal facility for waste in the meantime, she said.

She said she was "somewhat reassured" that the DOI was "actively progressing plans for a replacement fully engineered and lined waste facility".