Plans for waste treatment facility near Stafford go to appeal hearing

An application to operate a waste treatment facility in a village near Stafford, which was rejected by Staffordshire County Council’s planning committee, will be decided after an appeal hearing in April.

The Planning Inspectorate decided the application for the clinical waste incinerator at Hixon Industrial Estate should have an appeal hearing due to the number of public objections.

This will last for one day and take place at County Buildings at 10am on Thursday 30 April. The planning application was rejected last October by the county council’s planning committee, though it had already been taken to appeal by the applicant Inwaste Ltd.

Hixon Parish Council and local residents are opposed to the plans and spoke at the planning committee meeting. Their opposition to the facility at Hixon was backed by the county council afterwards.

Brendan McKeown, Hixon parish council chairman, said:

As parish councillors we made our opposition clear from the outset to this application. No other potential sites were considered and it’s not been proven that Hixon is the right place."

Andrew Mynors, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for connectivity which includes waste management, said:

We welcome the appeal for this application going to a public hearing so it remains accessible and transparent.

Throughout this process it has been encouraging to see how active the Hixon community has been and responsive to something which could affect day to day life.

While we hope the inspectorate upholds our planning committee decision, we’ll stand by residents whatever the decision.”

The county council will notify interested parties of the appeal hearing arrangements closer to the date.

The details for the application are SCC/24/0064/FULL-ES and APP/D3450/W/25/3371472: Land at Hixon Industrial Estate, Church Lane, Hixon, Staffordshire, ST18 0PY.