Dorset County Council's planning committee has granted planning permission to the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) to build a combined household recycling centre (HRC) and waste transfer station at the Broomhills Nursery site off the A35 west of Bridport.

The committee approved the application on the condition that the waste transfer part of the site closes at 7pm rather than 9pm.

Bridport has been without a dedicated waste management facility since the Bothenhampton landfill site closed in the 1990s. The hunt for a suitable site for a waste management centre began 12 years ago.

The existing Bridport HRC on South Street opened on a temporary basis in 1998. It is heavily constrained due to its small size and town centre location, accepting only garden waste on Saturdays and closing on Sundays.

-- Advertisement --

A previous planning application submitted in July was amended to include additional information requested by Natural England and the Highways Agency. Both bodies are now satisfied with the plans.

Access to and from the site will be via a new signal-controlled junction on the A35 trunk road. Only vehicles turning right out of the site will trigger a red light, with all other vehicle movements using filter lanes to keep traffic flowing.

The Highways Agency approved the design of the junction but added the condition that a reduced 50mph speed limit and speed reducing features be implemented on the A35 between Miles Cross and the Crown Roundabout.

The £8m facility will consist of a modern, split-level recycling centre and a transfer station where materials collected from West Dorset households will be bulked up before being sent for recycling, treatment or disposal. At present, materials have to be transported to transfer stations in the east of the county.

The Broomhills site comprises a redundant nursery and a wetland Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI). The development will include a landscaping scheme to restore the SNCI and screen planting to help the centre blend into the surrounding Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The design features a 'green roof' canopy to further soften its impact on the landscape, natural building materials, low-level lighting and solar panels to help power the site buildings.

(CD/MH)