TENSIONS ran high at the Cotswold District Council (CDC) meeting on Thursday where plans for a waste transfer station in South Cerney were withdrawn.

Plans to create the waste transfer station in Packers Leaze which could process up to 40,000 tons of waste a year were removed after residents in the village expressed concern that the site would cause traffic and noise disturbance and damage the environment and tourism in the area.

The council are set to consult with other local authorities in the country to see how they have minimised noise and odour at waste sites but have not confirmed whether or not the application will be brought back again.

CDC still has plans to go ahead with an application to relocate Ubico Ltd waste vehicles at the same site, where it will be able to house 33 refuse vehicles, 25 vans and 72 cars.

At the meeting several South Cerney residents demanded answers about why the applications came to fruition.

Juliet Layton, district council ward councillor for South Cerney and resident of the village, expressed concerns that the council did not have a robust policy that would protect against applications that could cause damage to the Cotswold Water Park.

She said she would like to see more than a small section on the Cotswold Water Park in the council’s Local Plan document.

She asked Nick Parsons, the vice chairman of the cabinet, if the council would consult with councillors, parish councillors and the Cotswold Water Park Trust to create a more robust policy on the Water Park to protect it from development.

She said: “The council has in the past badly let down residents across the Cotswold Water Park, losing public access, rights of way, public amenities and indeed a whole park (council handing the Cotswold Country Park and Beach lease to property developer Watermark in 2007) . We need robust policies to protect us.”

He responded by saying that the new local plan, which is currently being drawn up, will include a Cotswold Water Park section and that those bodies will be consulted with when putting it together.

And at the meeting, Alan Dickinson of the Save South Cerney Group, which is opposing both applications, asked Nick Parsons of Cotswold District Council to reveal the cost involved in creating the vehicle depot.

But the vice chairman of the council said he could not give that information as it was commercially sensitive.

Mr Dickinson said afterwards: “I was very disappointed in Cllr Parson's response . A potential item of substantial expenditure by Cotswold District Council, the Packer's Leaze site is once again the subject of the much used phrase as commercially Sensitive."

South Cerney Man, Peter Jay, who stepped down from South Cerney Parish Council in May after serving on it for several years, asked council leader Lynden Stowe why both applications were going ahead despite there being big opposition to them.

Mr Stowe said: “With regard to the waste transfer application we have recommended that we withdraw that, as far as the vehicle depot we are not planning to withdraw it."

He said that the site has extant planning permission for the storage of waste vehicles and the application is for a slight increase in the amount of vehicles it can store.

“I do not believe the vehicle depot has the same merits of withdrawal,” he said.

After the meeting Cllr Layton continued her debate with Cllr Parsons.

She accused the council of not submitting enough details in the application such as assessments on noise pollution.

Cllr Parson said the planning process would allow for these issues to be examined.

“These issues would come out in the process of the planning application.

“The process of planning permission is there to see what we want to achieve could be achieved.”

What do you think of the applications? Email bmc@wiltsglosstandard.co.uk with your views.