A DECISION to grant planning permission for two biomass boilers already built at a skip hire site near Leigh Sinton is due soon.

Go Greener Recycling, who run the site in Guinness Park Farm near Malvern, have already installed but is not yet using two biomass boilers – which are run by scrap wood such as pallets and old bits of furniture.

The company also wants to build a washing plant to clean contaminated wood and two water ponds as a safety measure in case of fire. Saturday opening hours would also be extended to 5pm if plans were approved.

Go Greener Recycling said the new application is in response to the business growing and expanding and to update the “outdated” applications.

A report, to be discussed by the county council’s planning committee at a meeting on December 4, recommends the plan is approved including increasing the maximum amount of waste allowed from 25,000 tonnes to 175,000 tonnes meaning around 55 lorries would be entering the site every day – roughly double what it is now.

The report also recommends extending the Saturday opening hours to 5pm to give workers a chance to maintain the yard as no skips would enter or exit the site after 1pm.

Go Greener Recycling said the boilers would require eight tonnes of waste wood a day to run – generating around 80 kilowatts of electricity – which would power all of the site. Surplus electricity would be fed into the grid to power the surrounding area.

No objections to the application were made by Malvern Hills District Council, the Environment Agency or by air quality or dust and noise officers at Worcestershire Regulatory Services.

A seven-signature petition and 16 letters supported the plan and six letters were sent objecting to it.

One objection said the council was “paying lip service” to the process as the boilers were already built and accused Go Greener Recycling of working outside the Saturday time restriction and on Sundays.