older
topics
home
page

Waste Treatment Plant

index
maps
newer
topics

Leeds City Council plans to re-open the waste plant at Evanston Avenue.

In early November 2008 we learned of a new proposal to re-instate the Evanston Avenue refuse site as a waste transfer station to receive all the domestic waste from the North West side of the city. The waste would be emptied from the collection vehicles, compressed and transferred to larger trucks for subsequent transport to another site in Pontefract Lane for incineration or alternative means of disposal.

Please do not confuse this with the recycling centre, which mainly accepts dry domestic goods. The council wants to bring all the stinking black bin waste from the whole of North West Leeds into Kirkstall to process on your doorstep. The Evanston Avenue site was previously used as a transfer station, but it was closed after a serious fire several years ago. Large quantities of rotting domestic waste were stored and processed there, and in warm weather residents endured noxious smells and plagues of flies.

We are furious about being kept in the dark about this plan, which must have been under development for some considerable time. We hate such secrecy which is now common within Leeds City Council. We had no idea that these proposals were being developed. We have not been consulted. Local residents have not been consulted.

We pointed out that since the fire which closed the transfer station several years ago, there had been no trouble with the plagues of flies which had been a feature of every warm summer. There had been no more noxious smells emanating from the site. We saw no reason why all the waste of Guiseley, Horsforth, Rawdon, Otley, Adel, and elsewhere should be collected and dumped in Kirkstall. We pointed out that the decision to reinstate the waste site as a transfer station would lead to increasing heavy traffic on one of the most busy and congested roads in the city.

We also pointed out other areas which might serve as well or better. For instance there is a grossly underused waste site remote from houses on the Horsforth ring road which would be much nearer the source of the waste. If the council require a site nearer the city centre the former Yorkshire Chemicals factory opposite the Yorkshire TV studios is available, and is again remote from houses.

The council's officers we met were simply doing their job as set out by their masters. Their masters are the Lib Dem and Tory led coalition that runs Leeds City Council. If you want to protest please write or email to Councillor Brett (Lib Dem) richard.brett@leeds.gov.uk and / or Councillor Andrew Carter (Conservative) andrew.carter@leeds.gov.uk at the Civic Hall, Leeds LS1 1UR.

This problem will adversely affect the entire neighbourhood, and we all must pull together for the common good. The issue was raised at a public meeting of the Leeds City Council Area Committee in Headingley Baptist Church on 13 November 2008. It will be raised again at the next Area Committee meeting at 7pm on Thursday 18 December in the West Park Centre where local residents are welcome to attend and state their views. We your local councillors will oppose the plan as outlined to us. This is not a matter for Party Politics. If we are to win or even to stand a chance of winning, then we will need the active support of everyone who feels as we do.

Last updated 29 November 2008 at 19:25. Back to the top

older topics home page navigation bar index maps newer topics

Promoted by John Illingworth, 37 Kirkwood Way, Leeds LS16 7EU