Villagers have reacted angrily to a report which recommends approval of a huge waste tip on their doorstep.

Members of Denholme Residents Action Group and the town council are furious about the report by Bradford council planning officers. They say the document ignores their concerns about the planned landfill site at Buck Park Quarry.

The 43-page report recommends approval of an outline planning application to turn the quarry into a site which can hold 2.4 million cubic metres of waste.

The report will be considered by Bradford council's Shipley area planning sub-committee when it meets to discuss the application on Monday at Shipley Town Hall. If the outline planning application is approved, detailed plans will then be submitted.

Action group member Sharon Makinson is one of the residents living at Buck Park Farm, which is within 50 metres of the proposed waste site.

She says: "We think the general tone of the document is off-hand and there are certainly a number of objections which haven't been addressed in it. We don't think our objection is just a string of whinges put together. We think our letter contains valid points and a number of those valid points have been ignored by council officials."

She also claims an amount of 'buck passing' has taken place between Bradford council planning officials and members of the Leeds-based Environ-ment Agency.

Concerned villagers have sent 350 letters and a 936-name petition to the council's planning office in opposition to the plans.

Residents are worried about:

the threat to wildlife

pollution problems in nearby Hewen-den Reservoir

unpleasant smells

insect problems

the possibility that a geological fault in the South face of the quarry could cause leachates to seep into the rock and in turn into the water supply

the level of heavy-goods vehicles which will be travelling along the narrow A629 main road through the centre of Denholme.

Denholme mayor Cllr Russell Driver says: "It is disappointing that they have recommended approval. Bradford council seems to be finding fault with everything we do. But we shall overcome this."

The town council has given public notice for a referendum on the matter which it hopes Bradford council will approve on the morning of the planning sub-committee meeting. "We believe the sub-committee should defer this application until such time as we can hold this poll," says Cllr Driver.

Tory councillor Simon Cooke, who represents the village on Labour-controlled Bradford council, says: "I am very cross that the planners have effectively dismissed the residents' arguments and not given them the appropriate weight. I feel the case made by residents is very strong and I cannot see how even the best managed landfill site can alleviate the problems identified, especially for those living nearby the site. We don't need more landfill sites and for the council to keep banging on about a waste-management crisis makes me very angry."

Humberside company Wastewise says the tip is required to meet Bradford Waste Management (BWM) demands. Wastewise has stressed the landfill site will be engineered beyond the required safety specifications to minimise the environmental impact. The firm also says it will improve the junction at Whalley Lane and the A629 and it will return the landscape to its original condition when infilling stops.

If the project receives the go-ahead it will bring £2.5 million in landfill tax cash to be spent on environmental projects within a ten-mile radius of the tip.

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