CAMPAIGNERS against increased traffic at a controversial tip were dealt a blow today when it was revealed just how many wagons were using it.

Waste management company Sita said there were up to 450 vehicle movements at the Whinney Hill site, Accrington, every day.

And it said it already had permission for 820 between 7.30am and 8pm each day, six days a week. A vehicle movement is a wagon's inward or outward journey to the tip.

A report to Lancashire County Council had previously said Preston-based Sita, which wants to run the operation of the tip for the next 44 years, wanted to increase vehicle movements from 300 to 725 each day.

But a spokesman for the company said: "The present landfilling operations at Whinney Hill Quarry are carried out under an existing planning permission, which allows up to 80 heavy goods vehicle movements an hour from 7.30am to 5pm and up to 20 per hour from 5pm to 8pm.

"This is permitted from Monday to Saturday and this means that as many as 820 vehicle movements a day are currently permitted.

"Sita are not applying to increase the number of vehicles permitted to use the site each day.

"Recent closures of other nearby landfill sites have resulted in increased traffic to Whinney Hill quarry landfill and currently around 400 to 450 movements a day are associated with the landfill site."

She added the company did not envisage using 820 vehicle movements a day but it could not be ruled out.

A planning application submitted by the firm seeks permission to change the waste types acceptable in the northern part of the quarry to match the general waste already permitted within the main part of the landfill.

The spokesman said: "The current quarrying and landfill operations have planning permission to continue until the 2040s and the rate of waste input to the site is likely to be the same, regardless of whether Sita's recent application is granted or not.

"The difference will only be seen in the long term when general waste will be imported rather than inert waste."

All loads going into the tip were weighed and the origin and waste type checked and recorded, she added.

The site is also used by two other companies, Marshalls, of Halifax, and Bury-based Park Royal, which have wagons of their own accessing its five entrances.

Geoff Wheatman is chairman of Reach - Residents of Altham, Clayton and Huncoat - which is campaigning for an alternative entrance to the site off the M65, rather than the one-way system along Henry Street, Clayton-le-Moors, proposed by Sita.

He said: "It's come as rather a shock that there are more movements than originally quoted. When is it going to end?

"Are they going to come and say they can increase it a further 100 movements a day. If they have got the capacity for 820 vehicle movements a day, they are going to go to the capacity if possible. It's very worrying."

Coun Tim O'Kane, Hyndburn Council portfolio holder for environmental health, said: "You have to take into account the Lancashire structure plan that proposes 1,900 new houses, between 2006 and 2021.

"Then there's going to be another plan from 2021 to 2036, all increasing the numbers of houses in Hyndburn, which is going to impact on the level of traffic through the Henry Street junction."

The application is set to be considered by Lancashire County Council in May.