'Waste scheme is just rubbish'

Grange Landfill Ltd was given permission by the Environment Agency to reopen the tip off Droppingwell Road, Kimberworth.

It allows the firm to take in 150,000 tonnes a year for disposal, plus 55,000 tonnes for re-use. Permitted materials include concrete and sand.

Nearby residents say it will ruin the land and pose a danger to pedestrians because of the increased lorry traffic.

Brian Carr (69) of Old Wortley Road, said: “Droppingwell Road is just not designed for this.

“It’s actually where Millmoor Juniors play their matches. 

“With the number of vehicles going to the tip, are the people going to the football going to be in danger?

“It was an accident blackspot in the 90s and they are using much bigger trucks for the waste now Road than back then.”

Millmoor Juniors Football Club shares the same Droppingwell Road entrance as the tip site. 

Secretary Alan Ramsden said: “What’s going to happen down the road could be a nightmare for us with the lorries and wagons, the dust and everything else.

“On a normal weekend, you’re talking about 600 or 700 people coming down here to watch games. Even if there are no spectators, you’ve got at least 30 cars having to park up.

“Where’s the management of it? I would have thought any organisation doing this should have spoken to stakeholders on the land, like us and the driving range.

“We only found out when a guy came up to me handing out posters telling people the tip was reopening.”

One resident said: “I recall when there were about 70 lorries a day driving on and off the tip. It was dangerous and it was a nightmare going to and from work. 

“The permit will take land out of agricultural use when in 1994, the purpose put forward for the tipping was to restore the land to be suitable for agricultural purposes.”

A permit was originally issued to Alick Watson Ltd in January, 1978.

Eleven years later there were protests against Wimpey Waste Management’s plan to dump on the site.

Grange Landfill Ltd director Martin Hague, who was also a director at Alick Watson Ltd, did not respond to the Advertiser’s request for a comment.

Damien Wilson, environment director at Rotherham Borough Council, said: “Our officers are working closely with the Environment Agency, colleagues in Public Health England as well as environmental health and legal officers to ensure proper consideration is given to residents and all legal requirements are being met.”