CPRE Bedfordshire has objected to the proposal for a new commercial recycling facility on prime agricultural land at Milton Road, Thurleigh.

The site will be open seven days a week and will generate over 208 vehicle movements per day. Of these just under 200 will be HGV and other commercial vehicles – one every three minutes during the day.

Milton Road is a quiet rural road which has been defined as a “quiet route” for cyclists. It is quite unsuitable for this sort of development. The use of high quality agricultural land for this purpose is unsustainable at time when food production is so important. Wood waste facilities should be confined to brownfield sites.

We have proposed a two-site solution to this waste management issue which will not involve the use of greenfield land and will reduce vehicle movements on individual sites to more sustainable levels.

CPRE also very concerned about suitability of the applicant to operate the facility due to poor management of the current site.

A PDF copy of our objection can be downloaded below.