Recycling gives Moss Lane residents an early wake-up call

Moss Lane residents are up in arms over Cheshire East Council’s failure to ensure their own contractors adhere to regulations set by the same council.

Cheshire East doesn’t have a waste storage or recycling facility – you may recall the Lyme Green fiasco put an end to those plans.

The Council-owned waste handling company, Ansa Environmental Services Ltd make silver bin collections around the town, then take them along to Henshaws Envirocare Ltd, on Moss Lane.

The waste is stored at Henshaws prior to it being collected and transported to Deeside by yet another contractor.

Movement of waste vehicles on and off Henshaw’s site are governed by planning conditions which restrict the hours of waste movement to between the hours of 07:30 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays.

Regulations also forbid the movement of waste on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

A planning application was recently made to extend the hours of operation – to include Bank Holidays. Following a raft of objections from local residents the application was rejected by Cheshire East planners – despite pressure from within the Council.

Despite the limits set by the Council, on Christmas Eve residents were woken 06:41 by a number of HGV’s entering Henshaws site – in direct breach of the regulations. Complaints were made – and acknowledged the same day – and a written apology issued by the Council on 14th January – assuring residents that this wouldn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, no-one seems to have told the drivers – as the very next day – 15th January, at 06:53, another waste collection HGV entered the site long before its contractual time.

Once again, complaints were made and apologies proffered by CEC. The complainants were advised that on this occasion both drivers and staff had been severely reprimanded – and, once again, residents were told that it wouldn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, yesterday April 26th, much to Moss Lane resident’s annoyance, yet another two of the heavy collection vehicles arrived shortly after 07:00.

The incident was immediately reported to CEC Planning Enforcement, local councillors, ANSA and the Leader of the Council – and residents are awaiting yet another apology and/or promise.

Not surprisingly local residents are wondering if Cheshire East will continue to fail them.

Moss Lane resident John Rayner said “Who can you trust if your local authority is not prepared to ensure their own contractors and arms length organisations comply with planning constraints.”