AFTER more than two years of campaigning, 6,000 petition signatures and nearly 400 letters of opposition, residents will finally learn the future of Arpley landfill on Wednesday night.

3C Waste Limited, formerly known as WRG, submitted plans in January last year to continue dumping rubbish at the Sankey Bridges tip until 2025.

But residents have vowed to fight the application since consultation began in October 2010 highlighting traffic, noise, smells, dirt, dust and litter as some of their main concerns.

Councillors hope residents will make their opposition of the planning proposal clear by attending the development management committee meeting at the Parr Hall at 6.30pm.

Clr Pat Wright has written to all residents in the nearby Saxon Park estate and Sankey Bridges area asking them to attend.

She said: “It’s been going on for so long we want to make sure people turn up and show the strength of feeling that we don’t want this tip in Sankey Bridges or in Warrington.

“It’s the largest landfill site in the region and why should Warrington be the dumping ground of the north west?

“Residents have suffered long enough and were of the understanding that the licence would expire in October 2013.

“I’m 99.9 per cent sure it will get thrown out and if it goes to appeal and we have a fight with the secretary of state, we’re all going to be prepared for that too.”

The plans include waste being dumped further away from houses on Saxon Park but the height of the landfill increased.

The application also confirmed the majority of the waste going into Arpley is from Merseyside and Halton.

Warrington Borough Council revealed at the end of last year 90 per cent of waste from the town would no longer go to landfill but treated at a facility outside the borough and converted into fuel instead.

Campaigner Norman Crompton, from Saxon Park, said: “We all want Warrington to be a greener, cleaner town.

“Arpley has had it's useful time but the town has grown and modernised to the point that homes now engulf this site.

“We shouldn't have to live adjacent to a landfill site when there are other more suitable sites in the UK outside of populated areas.”

3C Waste Limited said if Arpley was closed approximately 482,100 cubic metres of waste over a 10 year period would need to be disposed of to landfill.

Warrington South MP David Mowat said:  “I am delighted the council planning officers now agree with what we have been saying for some time.

“This application is not needed, it is not compatible with Warrington's waste or development plans and it should be rejected.


"All we need now is for our elected councillors to boot this application well and truly into touch."


3C Waste Limited did not wish to comment.