PROTESTERS against plans to double the number of heavy goods vehicles using a busy main road to access a controversial tip have held their first meeting.

More than 50 angry residents attended a meeting of the Stop Sita group last night to quiz deputy head of planning at Lancashire County Council, Simon Prideaux, about the application.

Waste management company Sita are spearheading a global scheme that would see up to 725 lorries a day going to Whinney Hill tip for the next 40 years.

There are currently 300 a day using the tip, and residents are up in arms about the plans to merge planning permission for Preston firm Sita, Bury-based Park Royal, and Marshalls, based in Halifax, into one giant project to fill the site with household, industrial and commercial waste.

Sita is proposing a one-way system at the junction of Henry Street and Whalley Road to take the seven-tonne wagons to the tip, but councillors and residents are insisting that a junction is created off the M65 to divert traffic away from Clayton-le-Moors, Huncoat and Altham.

Councillor Miles Parkinson, member for Altham told residents they needed to establish a fighting fund to help them fight their case.

"We need to put forward a positive agenda for a link road," he said. "The scheme must encompass the Huncoat power station site. It's not been developed for last two decades. We must put forward positive ideas rather than negative ones.

One resident said: "It might be 725 lorries when they start, but in 12 months it could be 1,000 and in 15 months maybe 1,500. This road is a total bottleneck now without any more lorries. The idea of putting a one-way road in Henry Street is a joke. Where are the lorries going to go once they have done the one-way system? Back up Whalley Road."

Another said: "We have got a big hole up there, we accept that. We want to be objective as well, that's why we are proposing you look at alternative routes. The main road is a bottleneck as it stands now. To have more than 700 wagons when we have got a motorway that can take it away from houses is ridiculous." Councillor Tim O'Kane, portfolio holder for environmental health, said: "In June 1999 we were asked our opinion on this.

"The proposed entrance via Henry Street was seen as totally unacceptable and that's been totally ignored. We haven't even had a response from that. It's currently licensed to take 268 different kinds of waste. How are they going to monitor all these vehicles coming into this site? You would need 20 to 30 people on site permanently to check all these vehicles. There is no mention in the planning application that they are going to have a holding area. They have virtually got a licence to tip anything."

Mr Prideaux said he would be submitting a report to county councillors in March, recommending a site visit, and couldn't see a decision being made before July.

Phil Holland, technical manager for Sita, said: "We have made the application and the planners will give it their due consideration. We are willing to consider the slip road idea together with the county council and may be able to make a contribution towards it if that's the way forward, which might enable the council to get grant funding elsewhere."