Revised Dudley waste depot expansion set for approval
Controversial plans to expand a council depot look set to be approved after the scheme was scaled down following a backlash from neighbours.
Residents protested against the scheme to build a new car park and offices at Lister Road, Dudley, while MP Ian Austin called for it to be scrapped.
The plan has now been tweaked to ensure playing fields due to be ripped up will not be touched, following pressure from Sport England.
Planning officials have recommended it for approval ahead of a meeting this week. The expansion will still take up land next to the depot.
The plans for Dudley Council’s Lister Road depot include a gritter storage canopy, vehicle spray booth and vehicle storage unit.
The depot, which dates back to 1938, houses the council’s waste services staff, gritting trucks and pothole teams.
Irate residents said the expansion will increase traffic, noise and pollution.
However, Dudley Council planning officials say the proposals will not now have as greater impact as first feared.
Nearly 350 council staff will be based at the depot as part of plans to centralise operations in the town.
Bosses were forced to back down over the plan to build on the fields after Sport England raised concerns about the potential loss of football pitches.
A report due to go to councillors said: “The proposed office development, now it has been reduced in scale, is considered appropriate as effectively is ancillary to the operation of the depot.
“The depot itself forms part of a wide employment designation and the buildings which are proposed are acceptable in principle.”
Dudley councillor Ken Finch said he was ‘lost for words’ over the original move to take some of the land next to the depot but now hoped it would not have as much of an impact.
He said: “Something has got to be done at Lister Road and it needs to be done properly.”
