Chieveley recycling crusher plans shelved

Raymond Brown Minerals and Recycling applied to West Berkshire Council to place a material recycling facility at Quarry Copyhold Farm, near junction 13 of the M4 and adjacent to the site of Grundon’s ill-fated incinerator plans, which were recently refused by the council.
More than 300 letters of objection from the community had been written in response to the plans for the recycling plant, echoing the fury invoked by the incinerator.
Raymond Brown had a temporary operation at the location and hoped to extend the site in order to build a permanent material recycling facility, capable of processing 50,000 tonnes of waste per year.
The firm did not hold a public consultation as it did not think the development was overly large.
The agent acting for the applicant, Stephen Bowley, said that there had been no intention to deceive, that the firm was local and had good relations with the community, and that it would return with a proper application and go through a consultation.
He added that the renewed application would not be submitted any time soon.
Under the shelved proposals industrial and demolition skip waste, including rubble and concrete, would be crushed by heavy duty machines, and the recycling area would almost double in size, to 1.8 hectares, to accommodate the associated buildings. Chieveley Parish Council and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) had logged serious concerns. The Campaign to Protect Rural England Berkshire also objected, in order to shield the AONB, and the presence of a protected species of great crested newts living nearby.