A PUBLIC inquiry into St Helens Council's refusal to grant planning permission for a landfill site at Haydock is to be held at the town hall, starting on Tuesday, March 17.

The inquiry is expected to last around six days with evidence being submitted by the landfill applicants H. J. Banks and from council officers, the residents action group and an agricultural tenant.

The application, to develop land formerly occupied by the old Lyme and Wood pit sites off Vista Road, prompted some 2,000 letters split between support and opposition to the scheme. The council will be notifying each of these people in the near future.

Under the scheme, the applicants planned to reclaim 106 hectares (250 acres) of the former colliery sites and adjoining land in the county park, financed by the import of 2.9 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste over a six-year period.

The council's Planning Committee refused the application in December because it was contrary to the planning policies of the authority's Unitary Development Plan and Green Belt policy. It was felt it would undermine the economic regeneration of the borough and would have unacceptable impact on surrounding residents in terms of smells, noise, dust, litter, vermin, visual intrusion and traffic.

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