News Compost site not wanted
More than a hundred people have objected to a farmer's plans to continue composting at his farm at Rawcliffe Bridge.
Mr C. S. Backhouse wants planning chiefs to remove restrictions on his composting operations, which residents say are causing a foul smell.
Mr Backhouse, of Commons Farm on Bridge Lane, has applied for certain conditions to be removed from planning permission granted in August, 2006, which allowed him to compost non-animal by-products for a temporary period of three years.
And, despite an outcry from local residents - who claim to have been affected by a foul smell said to be emanating from the organic waste composted by Mr Backhouse - council planning officers have given the farmer the green light.
They have recommended that the council's Planning Committee - which meets today (Thursday) to determine the application - grants the removal of three separate conditions attached to Mr Backhouse's original planning application.
One of the conditions was that the compost - which Mr Backhouse has used to replace artificial fertilisers - must be stored in certain designated areas on the farmer's land and not within 250 metres of neighbouring residential properties.
Planning officers have recommended that the designated areas be removed so that Mr Backhouse can store the compost in other areas of his farmland, so long as they are at least 250 metres away from residential properties.
Another condition - that the spreading of compost must be restricted to a maximum of 20 days per year and from Mondays to Thursdays only, between 9am and 4pm - also looks set to be amended after Mr Backhouse stated he did not have any problems with not spreading compost at weekends or on public holidays, but would like a slightly longer working day from Monday to Thursday.
Planning officers had no problem with his request for new working hours of 7am to 6pm, and also proposed that the clause preventing him from composting on Fridays be removed.
They added, however, that this could not be done within 800 metres of neighbouring properties.
In their report to the Planning Committee, officers stated that the council was not prepared to remove the conditions, but was prepared to make minor changes to them.
If they are passed, the new rules will apply until Mr Backhouse's temporary planning permission for composting comes to an end in August, 2009.
During that time, planning chiefs will also look to implement an odour-monitoring scheme.
Meanwhile, following public notification about the application to remove the conditions, 44 letters of objection have been sent to the council and a petition of objection containing 125 signatures has also been submitted.
The complainants, including Rawcliffe Parish Council, stated that the removal of the conditons would make the odour problems worse, and that even to relax them would be an infringement on residents' quality of life.
However, five letters supporting the proposals were also submitted, claiming there were no problems with foul smells.
The complaints about odours have been investigated by the council's Public Protection department, but none has been proved.
Published on 31st July 2008 in News.
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