Town mayor: Council doesn't care what we think

Beverley Waite said her town was being ignored over plans for a new garden waste processing plant

The mayor of Ludlow has told a senior officer at Shropshire Council "you don’t care what we think", in a row over plans for a plant to recycle green waste in the town.

The county authority wants to turn a former anaerobic digester into a unit producing biochar, a form of charcoal.

During a presentation of plans to Ludlow Town Council by waste official Mark Foxall, mayor Beverley Waite said it seemed the decision to go ahead had already been taken.

Mr Foxall said the usual planning process would still apply.

He told members: "It’s a way of generating renewable energy and we can generate money from feedstock and people who deposit their wooded materials."

The officer expected the plant would make a return within five years, with funding coming from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

“It’s a black material and very honeycombed in its structure, and that’s where it gets its benefits from. If you apply it to land, it retains moisture and nutrients,” he explained.

'Will you just go ahead?'

The project has been strongly supported by another Ludlow councillor, Andy Boddington, who had suggested Ludlow as its base.

The former anaerobic digester, which collected gas from food waste, closed in 2012.

Waite said she believed the county council had already made its decision.

“It states quite clearly that planning permission will be required and you’re saying it’s going to be done,” she told Mr Foxall.

"If we turn you down, are you just going to go ahead and do it?

In response, Mr Foxall said: “That [planning permission] will be determined by planning colleagues and the planning committee."

Planning decisions are the responsibility of a committee of Shropshire councillors, which considers the views of town and parish councils and residents, but is required by law to judge the case on planning policy, not the weight of public opinion.

Members must also take an independent view on projects supported corporately by their own council.

People wishing to find out more about the scheme can attend a drop-in event at Ludlow Library on 6 November between 14:00 and 19:30 GMT.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.