Homes plan for Telford recycling centre blaze site
A Telford waste site that was at the centre of a month-long fire could be sold for housing.
Will Wellings, owner of the former Greenway Waste Recycling site in Ketley, said the intention is to sell the site for developers to build housing.
The premises was the focus of one of the county's longest running fires when firefighters battled a blaze involving more than 50,000 tonnes of waste in April 2021.
They spent around a month at the scene, with the smoke from the fire initially closing the M54.
Mr Wellings said that he is in the process of arranging for tonnes of waste still left at the site to be cleared, which would allow it to be sold and re-developed.
He said he expected that the cost of clearing the site could reach up to £600,000 and said there is no intention of reopening the site as a waste business.
The future of the site has been up in the air since the blaze, which caused major disruption and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to deal with.
At the time of the fire the site was not operating, with the firm that had been running the premises, Greenaway Waste Recycling, having gone out of business.
The business had left thousands of tonnes of waste at the site when it folded.
Earlier this year two brothers from Northern Ireland who were directors of the firm were spared jail for their role in the management of the site.
Jonathan Nicholson, 44, of Drumman Heights, Armagh, Northern Ireland and Mark Nicholson, 48, of Keady Road, Armagh, were both given suspended jail sentences for their actions as owners of Greenway Waste Recycling, allowing the waste to "get out of control" before the business went bust.
The Environment Agency has said that an investigation into the blaze is ongoing.
A spokesman said: "The legal investigation into the fire at Greenway Recycling is ongoing alongside our partners Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.
"We are working with the council to monitor the facility and give advice. The site is not abandoned and we have regular contact with the landowner who is trying to arrange disposal of the waste materials and to bring the site back into use."
