New £12.8M waste centre for Blandford agreed
The new centre will replace the existing facility at Blandford Heights Industrial Estate
A new £12.8million waste centre for the Blandford area has been approved – although Dorset Council could have done more to make it “greener” according to some councillors.
The site is off the Sunrise business park and north of the A350 Blandford bypass.
There was criticism at Monday’s committee that the design has no solar panels and no rainwater harvesting.
Some councillors were also worried about how long security lights may be left switched on and whether any thought had been given to staff being able to get to the site by public transport.
There were also concerns that many of the trees being planned may not survive unless a system of watering can be found.
Cllr David Tooke (Lib Dem, Cranborne & Alderholt) told the strategic planning committee which approved the project that one of the Dorset Council’s first actions as a new authority in 2019 was to back a climate emergency motion.
“To have buildings designed so they cannot take solar panels is a big oversight…it is the policy of the council to take climate change into account and design things in line with that. I’m not convinced this is good enough, so I won’t support it,” he said shortly before voting against, the only committee member to do so.
Cllr Alex Brenton, who moved to support the project, said she favoured the site even though it would have an impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
“There is a screaming need for a facility like this in Blandford which has had a lot of housing growth in the past ten years and will be having more,” she said.
Cllr Sherry Jespersen said no one was comfortable that the site was in the AoNB but she said the designers had come up with a plan which ensured it was the least intrusive and would only have a minimal impact on the area.
The new centre will have a waste transfer station and household recycling centre with a re-use centre.
The 2.7 hectare site, currently part of an arable farm, will be used to collect and transfer waste and recyclables and will have a covered waste transfer station with storage, a split-level household recycling centre with vehicle unloading bays and partially covered central yard, weighbridge and associated landscaping.
Among the objectors when the scheme was first proposed was the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team and Pimperne parish council which lodged a similar concern about the site being in the AoNB and was also unhappy about road access to and from the site.
A small number of public objections made comments about the AoNB, fears of pollution and smells, highway safety and the effect on wildlife.
Dorset Council had argued that the significant public benefits of the scheme outweighed adverse impacts on the AoNB and would be partially mitigated by substantial planting of native trees around the site.
The new centre will replace the existing waste site on the Blandford Heights industrial estate which is difficult to use and can only accommodate 14 vehicles at the same time – with the gates having to close when containers need removing, causing congestion on the access road, a similar situation to the Dorchester household recycling and waste site.
Work has been expected to start last summer but that timescale has now slipped by a year and it is now expected that work will start this summer, to be completed in the autumn of 2023.
Building the Blandford Waste Management Centre will start following an archaeological investigation of the site.