Wasted opportunity

Wasted opportunity: MP Robert Syms (right) with (r-l) Matt Horan of C3IA Solutions, Jamie Turner of SMD Ltd and Tom Colbourne of TAC Projects.

Wasted opportunity: MP Robert Syms (right) with (r-l) Matt Horan of C3IA Solutions, Jamie Turner of SMD Ltd and Tom Colbourne of TAC Projects.

Poole MP Robert Syms visited concerned businessmen who are opposing potential plans to build a huge waste recycling plant next door to Tower Park.

The site on Ling Road is one of several identified for Dorset County Council’s up-coming Draft Waste Plan.

But locals say the site is unsuitable for the proposed food recycling due to the smell, health concerns and impact on traffic – with large lorries travelling up the busy road.

Mr Syms agreed and said: “My view is that this is the wrong place for what they are planning. There must be a better use for what is a prime site.”

Previously used for light industrial work, the site – on both sides of Ling Road – is currently vacant save for a small cardboard and electrical recycling centre.

Matt Horan of C3IA Solutions, Tom Colbourne of TAC Projects and Jamie Turner of SMD Ltd, have businesses affected and met Mr Syms at Ling Road.

Mr Horan said: “The site is unsuited for food recycling because of the smell, the risk of rats and the extra traffic.

“It is also right next door to Tower Park, which is a huge leisure centre that has a water park with an outside element to it.

“There is also a desperate shortage of housing locally and being a large site, many homes could be built there, assuming the necessary planning consents could be obtained.

“Other waste recycling plants are situated away from centres of population and we feel there are sites more suited to this type of activity.”

The Draft Waste Plan has not been finalised yet but the council said a new waste recycling centre is required to meet the needs of the county over the next 15 years.