Waste plant should not be close to houses

Building of a waste disposal plant in Longton (in a green belt area) was cancelled after a well-organised campaign from the people in that area in autumn last year.

Now we find Lancashire Council Council will be submitting a planning application to build a very similar plant, just a few miles away from Farington.

This is in an area that includes Stanifield Lane, Golden Hill Lane and Croston Road -- all well within half a mile of this plant.

New houses, within, 500 yards, are being built now off Croston Road and a further site off Golden Hill/Wheelton Lane area has been earmarked.

Is this rank bad planning or just total irresponsibility?

Everyone agrees landfill sites, as a means of waste disposal, are obscene and this new method has merits, if placed in the right area and away from housing estates.

This plant has potential problems, either from process malfunction, plant failure or, more likely, human error.

Any of these could result in a fallout of pathogens such as salmonella, e.coli, faecal coliforms and various other forms of disease-carrying organisms.

The buildings, I understand, are to be some 15 metres high.

This would be a good platform for the escaping organisms to become airborne.

And in the wind they would travel anywhere.

Airborne sand from the Sahara has travelled half-way around the world.

Ronald J Oates, Bispham Avenue, Farington Moss