A proposed waste treatment site in Walton that has seen a 1,500-strong petition against it has been recommended for refusal by Elmbridge council planning officers.

The development at Lyon Road has caused a stir the Walton community for the past two years when the first plans for the Weylands site were submitted in 2013.

If put forward, developers, Clean Power Properties Ltd, would transform the site into an “autoclave and anaerobic digestion facility” which will compress waste in a pressure chamber.

The plans also propose build offices, a staff welfare and education centre, a 6,000 sq m recycling facility and a waste recycling area.

A Clean Power spokesman had said earlier this year: "The application provides a unique opportunity to transform a site allocated for waste recycling in the Surrey Waste Plan into a modern, high-tech estate with a suite of planning conditions to ensure all operations are within environmental limits."

Planning officers from Elmbridge Council, who is a consulting authority on the matter and can only recommend a decision to the determining authority, Surrey County Council, recommended the application be refused in a document available on Elmbridge council’s website.

It cited an “insufficient case of very special circumstances to outweigh the harm to the green belt”, the impacts of emissions and air quality on surrounding residential areas and the impact of traffic in the vicinity as reasons to reject the site’s development.

It also concluded that the lack of precise ‘catchment area’ in which the waste processed would originate from was also a factor in rejecting the proposal.

The recommendation will now be taken to the North Area Planning Committee at Elmbridge Council on November 30, where councillors will decide whether to uphold the planning officers objection before their decision is put forward to Surrey County Council.

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