Protestors rally at Biffa tip meeting

10:35am Wednesday 5th December 2007

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Around 150 protestors packed a public meeting last night to fight hugely controversial plans for a new landfill tip.

The Biffa Action Group organised the meeting at Oak Royal Golf Club, Bury Lane, Withnell.

The action group was launched when waste company Biffa announced its proposals for the tip on Bolton Road at Abbey Village.

A £3,000 fighting fund has already been pledged with the protestors looking to raise at least £10,000.

People were asked to make pledges to the fund on the night and to write to the planning authority stressing their objections to the tip.

The fund will pay for professional advisors to work on the campaign.

The objectors promised they would be at county hall with their protest when the plan is discussed by county councillors Biffa has operated a tip for the last 26 years.

But the firm now wants to excavate shale from agricultural land, fill with household waste and screen it behind a man-made hill created from thousands of tonnes of soil.

Biffa, which submitted its plans to Lancashire County Council last month, also plans to build a giant recycling centre - expected to be almost half the size of a football pitch.

The site lies in green belt fields near Abbey Village, next to the existing Biffa tip.