Beaconsfield braces itself for lorry influx

Jan 21 2009 By Greg Burns

Large lorries will be passing through Beaconsfield every 40 seconds over eight hours a day if an application to increase movements at Springfield Farm landfill site is successful.

That is the warning from Beaconsfield Town Council in response to an application by site owners, Veolia Environmental Services, to increase the amount of deliveries it can receive.

The application to Bucks County Council would see up to 710 movements a day allowed to come in and out of the quarry, in Broad Lane, on 50 days of the year.

This would be one lorry movement every 40 seconds on an eight hour day and 470 movements - one every minute - at all other times.

Lorry movements were last increased at 70 hectare site Springfield Farm in 2002 but only after the county council had rejected the plans.

They were later overruled by the Planning Inspectorate on appeal and currently have a licence to accept 150,000 tonnes of rubbish per year.

With more than 50 homes built along the A40 and North Drive since that time the town council feel the road is already too busy to cope with this extra congestion.

A statement from BTC said: "A further increase in lorry movements would be a safety hazard, create more noise and pollution in a built up area, be an intensification of industrial use of Green Belt land.

"It will also increase disruption to local residents in an already crowded area, and see more debris deposited on local roads.

"Given all of this BTC strongly object to any further increase in lorry movements and hope that the county council take this into consideration and reject this current application."

Pensioner Bernard Turner, of North Drive, has written to BCC on a number of occasions about the dirt and pollution caused by the lorries which pass his house on the way to junction three of the M40.

He said: "The reality is that it is going to happen but I do not think it is a good idea. First it was the noise so I got double glazing. My main objection now is the dirt and pollution which means I have to clean my window sills once a month."

Springfield Farm bosses refused to comment other than to say that all the details of the plans were in the planning application and already in the public domain.

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