A rubbish dump will be built opposite a Bristol nursery after a planning inspector overturned city councillors’ decision to refuse permission. The local authority’s development control committee rejected Grundon Waste Management’s proposed waste transfer station next to St Philip’s Marsh Nursery School in April last year, with members saying they were not prepared to “gamble” with children’s lives.
They were concerned about rats, flies and nasty smells from the sorting plant but their main fear was that it would worsen air pollution and harm the health of youngsters, many of whom have breathing difficulties. But the company appealed against the decision and a government inspector has now ruled in its favour and thrown out Bristol City Council’s rejection.
Nursery headteacher Simon Holmes said he was disappointed and that this wouldn’t have happened anywhere else in the city. In his decision, the inspector said planning conditions could satisfactorily mitigate the potential harms from the site formerly occupied by Gulliver’s Truck Hire in Albert Crescent and that enforcement action could be taken against any breaches, so a refusal was not necessary.
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It means up to 50,000 tonnes of industrial and commercial rubbish from local businesses can be ferried in and out every year on an estimated 116 lorries a day. Council planners had recommended granting consent after concluding the facility would have a “negligible” effect on air quality.
They said Grundon would introduce measures to offset any odour and vermin and this would be controlled by the Environment Agency via a permit. While councillors stood their ground, planning inspector Andrew Owen has agreed with officers after considering written representations from the applicants, local authority and other parties.
In his report, he said: “I have regarded no other consideration as more important than the best interests of the children attending the educational facilities opposite the site. Although these best interests will not always outweigh other considerations in the final planning balance, I have nonetheless kept them at the forefront of my mind in reaching my decision.
“However, with appropriate mitigation and avenues for enforcement in place, I do not consider the development would harm the health, education or welfare generally of the children at the nursery.” The ruling, published on April 13, said that while the nursery would be the place affected most by any smells and wind direction from the tip, the risk of odour was “deemed to be not significant” with mitigation measures.
“I conclude that the development would not unacceptably affect the users of nearby receptors,” Mr Owen wrote. He said flies were unlikely to be a problem because it was not Grundon’s intention to accept organic waste or for it to be stored on site for more than a few days, and that the operations would be very different from those at Avonmouth.
The nursery school and local community successfully fought off two bids by power companies wanting to build fossil fuel energy plants on their doorstep in the last six years, but it has been third time unlucky. Mr Holmes, who was told the news about the appeal decision by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said: “We are very disappointed they’ve won.
“It is the wrong thing in the wrong place in the middle of the city and doesn’t seem to fit with the vision for Temple Quarter. This is another example of inequality being increased in the city and the kind of development that wouldn’t happen in other parts of Bristol.
“It demonstrates that the realities of inequalities in Bristol are very different from the rhetoric. You wouldn’t have a massive waste dump opposite a school anywhere else.
“The councillors didn’t think it was the right place for it but local opinion doesn’t matter. The local authority now has a duty to monitor the air quality here. The health, safety and wellbeing of the children needs proper support.
“There will be a lot more HGVs and these will have an impact on road safety. The council promised to replace a safety barrier outside the school that a dumper truck took out nine months ago but this has still not happened.”
