Campaigners oppose plans for landfill site

A letter writing campaign was held at Sampford Peverell village hall

Residents in mid Devon have delivered more than 100 letters objecting to a potential landfill site near the north of Halberton.

A company called Decharge applied to dump about 330,000 cubic tonnes of inert soil and stones in a temporary landfill at land off Greenway and operate a construction waste facility.

However campaigners in Sampford Peverell, Halberton, Uplowman and surrounding areas have voiced opposition to the scheme and the number of HGVs which would use small country lanes to access the site.

A Devon County Council spokesperson said a timescale for the decision had not yet been set, and that the council’s highways department was “yet to submit its final response” about the plans.

'Destroy the environment'

Campaigners organised a coffee morning at Sampford Peverell village hall where residents wrote letters and children drew pictures.

Oliver King, a Sampford Peverell resident said: "Everything about this application is wrong.

"It’s the wrong plan for the location, and the wrong location for the plan."

He added if the application was approved, it would "destroy the environment and our communities".

The residents against the proposal said in their application there would be up to one HGV roughly every seven minutes, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Councillor Gwen Duchesne, Liberal Democrat, Halberton, said the community was “absolutely desperate” to prevent the scheme in the proposed location.

“We’re talking about the destruction of people’s lives, their quality of life, if this goes ahead,” she said.

“The country lanes around here are not suitable, and we have a beautiful new housing estate here that people have invested everything into having thought they were going to live in the beautiful countryside, yet what’s actually happening [with this scheme] is part of a huge and growing industrialisation of the countryside.”

Aware of concerns

Simon Coles, a director at Carney Sweeney, the agent acting for Decharge, said the firm was aware of residents’ concerns about HGVs.

But he said the proposed route was already used by lorries and farm vehicles.

He added the number of vehicle movements identified in the planning application would be the “maximum number that the operator would be permitted, not the typical daily movement”.

HGV movements linked to the landfill would not take place on weekends or bank holidays, and Mr Coles said discussions were ongoing about possible restrictions during school drop-off and pick-up times.

He said work required for an access off the A361 “would not be viable for a proposal which is not a permanent facility.”