COUNCILLORS are being urged to oppose plans to turn a disused quarry into a paper dump amid fears that the waste could be toxic.

The five-year plan for Little Tooter Quarry, Todmorden Road, Bacup, would see 20 lorries a day carrying waste paper residue to and from the moorland site.

Rossendale Council has been asked to comment on the planning application which will be decided jointly by Lancashire County Council and Calderdale Council because the site lies on the boundary with West Yorkshire.

The Valley's chief planning officer Philip Cunliffe is urging councillors to raise "strong objections" to the scheme which he believes could blight the area and make local people's lives a misery.

The application is to use the quarry to store organic paper residue from mills in Lancashire and beyond.

The paper residue would be delivered twice a year - in spring and autumn - to farms within a 20-mile radius for use as a soil improver and fertiliser. A ditch round the site would catch any run-off and an embankment would help screen the quarry. The site would operate Mondays to Saturdays between 7am and 5pm with a two-hour extension during April, May, October and November when the fertiliser is delivered.

At the end of the five years the land would be filled in and landscaped.

In his report to tonight's planning sub-committee meeting Mr Cunliffe questions assurances that the waste would be non-toxic. He says: "While the paper residue is described as being non-toxic, it does contain small traces of potentially toxic elements.

"The applicants state that the level of such elements is lower than in sewage sludge. My concern is that the applicants' reassurances may not be justified."

He adds that despite a proposed embankment the site would be visible from the north. When disturbed the residue would cause a pungent smell and on windy days dust would be blown on to nearby homes.

Lancashire County Council has been trying without success for almost 10 years to force the quarry owner to landscape the area in accordance with planning regulations.

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