ANGRY residents who packed Ludgershall’s Memorial Hall to over-flowing on Monday evening left developers and council officials in no doubt that they would not allow a new waste disposal site next to the area’s showpiece £32 million Wellington Academy.

Their message was an unequivocal ‘don’t dump on Ludgershall’ by putting this facility on Castledown Business Park.

An estimated 220 people attended the area board meeting to hear Cllr Toby Sturgis, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for waste, outline the general need for a facility to deal with recyclable refuse, council officer Andy Conn outline the current position and Hills Waste Solutions’ Andrea Pellegram reveal how her company intended to operate the site and meet the concerns of the local population.

Hills Waste has a special relationship with Wiltshire Council, having operated waste contracts from the county council since the mid 1990s and holding existing contracts stretching forward more than 20 years.

Ever more stringent waste regulation regimes and escalating landfill tax charges mean it is imperative that new, more environmentally friendly, ways are found of dealing with waste – but where?

Ludgershall coach operator Ray Parnham said: “We pay these people damn good wages to solve these problems not dump them onto us.

“There will be 106 movements of dustcarts per day from the site and as it takes time to weigh each one there will be queues of dustcarts plus articulated lorries – our roads can’t cope.

“I wanted to put my business on that site but was told we can’t have coaches because it is a ‘dirty business’ – but are dustcarts a clean one? I’m confused.”

Neither councillors or officials could provide answers to why the MoD had not been asked to release a couple of acres of land next to the existing Thorny Down transfer site to enable this facility to built there or why it is not possible to rezone part of the huge Solstice Park facility for this use.

More reports on page five of the Andover Advertiser.