Villagers are calling on planning bosses to reject a proposal to create a waste transfer station in open countryside, amid fears it will exacerbate an accident black spot on the A19.
Some 22 months after Riley Plant Hire Ltd applied to North Yorkshire County Council for consent the change of use of land and buildings close to the A19 at Tollerton, north of York, the firm and residents are awaiting a recommendation from the authority’s highways officers over whether the plan would increase the risk of accidents.
A decision on the scheme, which has at present been delegated to planning officers despite it generating controversy, is likely to follow shortly after the highways department makes its conclusion.
Documents lodged with the application by Riley Plant Hire, which specialises in demolition, excavation, plant and skip hire, state the site would receive about 3,000 tonnes of waste a year, with 20-tonne HGVs making about five deliveries a day.
Agents for the firm state accident data “clearly demonstrates that the site access can accommodate both the volume and capacity of traffic likely to be generated” and that the use of the A19 junction at Tollerton did not give rise to any accidents involving HGVs between 2015 and 2019.
They added: “The application envisages the development of a facility remote from any sensitive receptors and, whilst located in an open countryside location, the character of the site lends itself to the establishment of a facility such as this.”
The stretch of the trunk road between Shipton by Beninborough and north of Tollerton has developed a notorious reputation for serious collisions with large vehicles over the past two decades.
Incidents on the A19 near Tollerton include a 27-year-old woman who died after a crash involving a bus and a black car last year, a York driver who was killed in a collision with a tanker in 2018, and in 2014 a 45-year-old Middlesbrough man died in a head-on collision between his car and a bus.
Since 2000 there have been several other fatal crashes on the A19 near Tollerton.
However, Hambleton District Council has raised concerns over the intensification of the use of the site, with a haulage business, waste transfer site and agricultural use all operating from there.
in its objection to the scheme Tollerton Parish Council said trucks heading towards and leaving the remote country site off a narrow lane would see the waste stream increase, causing a greater number of vehicle movements and “further nuisance to the surrounding properties, to both sides of the A19”.
It stated: “This junction is a high risk area as traffic is passing at high speed. Additional HGV movements across this area will potentially increase the risk of accidents.”
Be the first to comment