Million-tonne landfill waste site agreed for quarry on Portland
It could take up to 60,000 tonnes of waste a year
A landfill waste site has been agreed for a Portland quarry with a capacity of almost a million tonnes.
Dorset Council has approved an application from Portland Stone Ltd to use the 9.65 hectare site for inert waste with a steel framed waste management building at Coombefield Quarry North, off Southwell Road.
The site is 420 metres to the north east of Southwell and 730 metres to the south of Easton and just 20 metres away from the World Heritage coast and sites of scientific or natural interest.
The closest properties are 80 metres away in Weston Street, with a property in Pennsylvania Close and another in Weston Street 65 metres to the north of the application site although these are nearest to a section where no landfilling works are proposed.
The application had attracted seventeen letters of support, including Portland Town Council, and just one objection which was concerned with additional traffic being attracted to the island to use the facility.
The company say that up to 60,000 tonnes of material could be deposited each year, more than half of it classed as commercial or industrial. This would give the operation around 17 years until the quarry is full.
The agreement includes the relocation of the existing Waste Management Facilities from Broadcroft Quarry to Coombefield Quarry with the existing buildings on site to be replaced with a waste reception and processing building and hard standing area. The new building will be of steel frame construction on an impermeable concrete base with roller doors. An enclosed picking station will sit above bays.
Incoming materials will be imported in skips, by HGV or small builder lorries/vans and weighed and checked at the weighbridge. Purely inert materials will be unloaded in the ‘crushing and screening area’. These materials will be bulked up until a sufficient quantity has been reached for a ‘crusher run’ to produce recycled aggregates building products which will be utilised in local construction projects. A loading shovel will be used to load the crusher and move the recycled aggregates.
Mixed waste, including mixtures of inert and non-inert waste will be unloaded in the new transfer building where a grab will be used to place materials onto the picking station to be separated into different waste types into bays or skips. The separated non-inert wastes will be stored until a sufficient quantity has been reached to be transported off site for either recycling or disposal.
Opening hours are proposed to be 7am until 6pm Monday to Friday, 7am to 1pm on Saturday and closed on Sundays and bank holidays.
The quarry has been used, intermittently, since 1951 with the south quarry now having a mine for the continued extraction of stone.
Two other quarries in the area are already used for the disposal of inert waste – Broadcroft Quarry and Admiralty Quarry, expected to finish in 2027 and 2024.