Landfill plan for Market Drayton disused quarry

A disused quarry near Market Drayton could get a new lease of life as a landfill site if proposals are given the go-ahead, it has emerged today.

Applicant Malcolm Harrison wants a certificate of lawfulness to use Tadgedale Quarry, in Mucklestone Road, Loggerheads, as a landfill site for waste soil from building sites.

An application has been lodged with Staffordshire County Council, which handles major planning applications connected to waste disposal.

If successful, Mr Harrison would be allowed to infill the old quarry with waste material.

The site is about 230m from the edge of the village and the nearest property to the site is 90m away, according to planning documents.

Mr Harrison, who runs a commercial vehicle and plant machinery auction house, said today the plan was to offer the landfill site to private customers within a 10-mile radius.

He said: "It will be used for soils and we will take out all the bricks and other waste first, so it will be recycled if you like.

"If people are building roads or cutting out large amounts of soil for local developments, we will be able to cater for them.

"It wouldn't be for municipal waste, just for private customers.

"The plan is to create a gradual slope across the site.

"It was a quarry so in fact we would just be returning it to how it used to be by filling it in."

He added that the firm was in "no big hurry" to get the scheme up and running.

And he said if it did get permission, it would not lead to round-the-clock deliveries of waste. He said: "It would not create continuous vehicle movements. It would be patchy depending on when there is work going on."