Furious villagers fear Denholme is becoming the dumping ground of the North.

They have formed a new action group in protest at plans to tip millions of tonnes of rubbish at Buck Park Quarry.

The scheme to turn the quarry into a massive household waste tip has provoked an outcry in the village since it was submitted last April by Humberside company Wastewise to Bradford Council, which will decide whether the plan can go ahead.

Now residents have launched their own group to campaign against the application.

They are urging anyone who is against the tip to attend a protest meeting at 7pm next Tuesday at the Mechanics Institute.

Sharon Makinson, who lives at Buck Park Farm on the edge of the quarry, helped to form the group when after last week's Denholme Neighbourhood For-um meeting when it was revealed that only 12 objections had been lodged with Bradford Council.

She says the aim of the group is to galvanise the widespread opposition which already exists in the village. "The alarm bells started ringing at the meeting because we realised that nobody had actually done anything about it," she said.

"The problem was that we had been told there would be a questionnaire circulated by the town council which everyone was waiting for but it still hasn't been done."

The objectors now hope to organise a massive petition.

They say the plan will cause:

Increased traffic on Denholme's already busy roads

Pollution from insects, birds and litter

Smell from rotting waste

Noise from on-site machinery

The application is to quarry up to a further million cubic metres of sandstone from the site as well as tipping household, commercial and industrial waste there. It also includes improvements to the junction of Whalley Lane and the A629.

Wastewise's project manager Simon Jones said his company would take measures to ensure people in Denholme would not suffer the kind of problems often associated with waste tips.

"Domestic waste will smell but it will be a site which is well managed," he said.

The application is expected to be considered at the March 4 meeting of the Council's Shipley area planning sub-committee.

Representations about the planning application can be sent to: Marianne Millward, Miner-als and Waste Planning Team, 3rd Floor South, Jacobs Well, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 5RW.

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