Brandesburton: Hundreds object to latest plan for asphalt plant in popular tourism area

East Riding councillors are due to discuss the plans for the Catfoss industrial estate next Thursday, which are recommended for approval.

Villager Jackie Suthenwood said the proposed 20m stack "to aid dispersal of dust and odour” after filtration, begged a question: "On one hand they are saying dust and odour won't be a problem, but if they need a giant chimney to dispose it, where is it going to go?

"It has to land somewhere. No one can guarantee there won't be an escape at the very least of nasty smells, or at worst some pretty toxic, nasty dust.

"We are a cluster of small villages with narrow roads that get clogged at the best of times. There is a lot of agricultural work going on. No one wants HGVs thundering through and causing more pollution.”

Newlay Asphalt wants to build the plant on a 2.39 hectare site off Catfoss Lane, used previously for storage. Bitumen would be trucked to the site and used to coat up to 100 tonnes of roadstone an hour, for use on pavements and roads. It’ll create 90 extra HGV movements.

There have been 341 objections, also from Sir Greg Knight MP, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and four parish councils.

Sir Greg wrote that the area was popular with holidaymakers and this would be “significantly undermined by the presence of a dirty industrial facility”. He said emissions could include cadmium, arsenic and benzene "which have been linked to serious health impacts”.

Newlay said at the last meeting that information used by objectors derived from US plants which used heavy fuel oils in the process of drying aggregates, whereas UK plants used light fuel oils, with a higher percentage of bio oils.

Mrs Suthenwood said they'd had no idea that the plans were going to committee until a few days ago, and a lot of people would be away.

"It does almost seem a cynical move," she said. "I've complained as has the parish council chairman."

A committee report says planners are satisfied "that the overall odour and dust potential of the site is small to sensitive receptors and adjacent businesses". Computer models of the “likely emissions...concludes that impacts on concentrations of prescribed pollutants at existing sensitive receptor locations are 'negligible'”.

The facility will need an Environment Agency environmental permit before it can operate. No objections have been raised by highways, public protection or the EA.