AFTER decades of noise, smells, and the trundle of trucks through their village, a parish council is standing in strong objection to expansion at a nearby tip.

St Pinnock Parish Council says plans for the Household Waste Recovery Centre (HWRC) at East Taphouse will double the number of vehicles going to and from the site.

The Connon Bridge dump, which opened more than 50 years ago, ceased taking landfill after the incinerator in St Dennis (Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre) opened in 2018.

But the HWRC has stayed operational for the collection and transfer of black bag waste, recycling, and bulky items which have to be shredded before they can go to St Dennis. A planning application has gone in which would see a large shed erected at East Taphouse for the handling of weekly food waste collections that are set to begin in 2022.

St Pinnock Parish Council is asking residents to object to this planning application.

They’ve asked Suez and Cornwall Council why the shed planned for Connon Bridge is more than four times the size of the food waste transfer sheds at Bodmin or Launceston. They’ve also asked why the Council wants to move a central road sweepings collection, currently based in St Austell, to East Taphouse. And they say they want to know why a cap on the tonnage of waste coming through the site has been removed.

Parish Council chairman Carol Spear said: “Enough is enough.”

“SUEZ have now submitted their planning application to extend operations at Connon Bridge by building another large shed to handle stinking food waste, transfer the storage of road sweepings from St Austell into the existing shed at Connon and to double the number of lorry movements to 204 per day – that’s one going to or leaving the site every three minutes on average.

“Despite our many suggestions, they have not changed anything of any significance since June last year.

“All other waste transfer stations and HWRCs in Cornwall are sited on industrial estates, except for St Erth, which adjoins a railway line and a sewage works.

“Connon Bridge is set in the rural countryside and we therefore consider that this is an inappropriate use of the site. It should be allowed to revert back to nature.”

Doug Mills is a parish councillor, but spoke to the Cornish Times as a resident of East Taphouse. He said: “The transfer of the road sweepings operation to Connon will bring an extra annual fuel cost of more than £1million to council tax payers.

“Cornwall Council want to build a disproportionately large food waste shed at Connon – what else are they not telling us?

“This is creating the Council’s own out-of-town industrial estate, re-introducing the stink that we endured unabated for years and doubling the number of heavy lorries.”

St Pinnock Council fears what might lie ahead in terms of future activities.

In a statement to the Cornish Times, Cornwall Council said that “there were no plans to transfer any other waste recovery activities to Connon Bridge at this time”.

A spokesperson said: “In 2021, Cornwall Council entered a new waste collection contract with Biffa which will help increase recycling rates across the county.

“This will result in the introduction of a weekly food waste collection service and fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections.

“The new contract also covers street, beach and public open space cleaning, as well as collections for bulky, clinical and garden, council office and commercial waste.

“To facilitate the changes, upgrades need to be made to the sites where food waste and recycling is managed.

“Connon Bridge is a strategic waste management site in the east of Cornwall and already provides services in the form of a Household Waste Recycling Centre and the bulking up and transfer of collected waste.

“A planning application has been submitted for the construction of a new food waste transfer station at the site, as well as significant upgrades to the existing facility.”

With regard to the road sweepings operation, the Council said: “The Waste Transfer Facility at Tregongeeves, St Austell, is scheduled to close in the near future and as such will not be available to process street sweepings.

“Other sites have been considered for food waste and street sweepings… (including) industrial estates in Bodmin, St Austell and Liskeard. However, these sites were not found to be suitable for waste related development.”

St Pinnock Council has questioned the efficiency and impacts of food waste “coming from Saltash and Torpoint to Connon, only to be re-loaded and cross the same ground on the way to Holsworthy, Langage or Somerset”.

Likewise they ask why the incinerator site was not designed to shred bulky waste, which would save journeys to and from Connon.

Cornwall Council said that there were “no viable options” to situate the shredder at St Dennis.

In a statement, SUEZ said that it had been consulting with the community over changes at Connon Bridge.

“Prior to submitting planning applications, Cornwall Council and SUEZ have engaged with the local communities around the facilities at Bodmin, Launceston, St Erth, Pool and Connon Bridge to explain the need for the changes and the plans, and listen to feedback and answer questions.

“We began discussing the plans with the local community at Connon Bridge in February 2020 and over several months we held meetings with the site’s community liaison group and local parish councillors, and webinars open to the wider community. Our engagement with the site’s community liaison group is ongoing, with a meeting in mid-April to discuss the planning application.

“Where possible, we have adapted the plans in response to feedback from members of the local community, such as redesigning the entrance and internal road system to reduce traffic queuing on the road outside the site. However, as a working site that has to provide an efficient service for managing Cornwall’s household waste, at the same time as meeting strict environmental and health and safety standards, unfortunately there is limited scope to alter certain aspects of the plans.

“For example, areas used to store food waste require specific drainage and should be enclosed to contain any smells.

“The separate building proposed for food waste represents best practice with vehicles able to tip and load food waste collected from the surrounding South East Cornwall area in a fully enclosed environment with a built-in odour suppression system.”

To see the planning application and leave comments visit Cornwall Council’s online planning register and use the reference PA20/11531.

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