Tip protesters on alert

Jan 5 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

CAMPAIGNERS have been placed on red alert for a possible decision on a long-running controversy over plans to expand a 40-year-old Northumberland waste tip.

Families living near the Sita UK landfill site at Seghill have been battling for almost three years against the company’s bid to extend it and continue dumping operations there until 2022.

Separate applications have been lodged with Northumberland County Council and North Tyneside Council since 2005, but neither authority has yet been able to bring a report before their planning committees.

Now the No To Landfill Campaign – which represents people in the villages of Seghill, Seaton Delaval, Holywell, Backworth and Earsdon – is urging its members and supporters to prepare for possible decisions in March.

In its latest newsletter, the group says campaigners should not be misled by the fact that Sita UK has been silent for almost 12 months – and warns that the threat of the site’s expansion has not gone away.

Local protesters say the proposed expansion, which involves building a new access road and bridge, will affect rights of way and threaten the green belt and a wildlife corridor. Hundreds of letters of objection have been sent in to the two councils, which will both have to approve the Sita UK applications for the scheme to go ahead.

Yesterday, No To Landfill chairman, retired systems analyst Lindsay Perks of Whitley Bay, said it was hoped that 2008 would finally see the rejection of Sita’s plans – especially with the growing waste disposal trend away from landfill.

“There has been dumping at Seghill for 40 years and now they want to considerably increase its capacity and create an extra waste mountain. It affects people’s lifestyles with the smell, flies and vermin, as well as the actual sight of it. Landfilling is now a dirty word and no-one should be doing more of it, especially when it is not necessary.”

A Sita spokesman said: “Although Sita UK, councils across the North-East and local people are all working hard to reduce, re-use and recycle as much waste as possible, landfill will remain a key part of the region’s waste management mix for many years to come.

“New landfill capacity is needed in the Northumberland and Tyne and Wear area, and Seghill is the best placed site to meet these needs, due to its proximity to the main sources of waste and the strategic road network. The proposed extension includes a new access road that would dramatically reduce traffic levels on the A190 through the village of Seghill and take site traffic straight from the B1322 to the site itself.”

No date has yet been set for the application to be considered by either authority.