A FORMER landfill site near Wellington will be turned into a waste processing facility following a decision by Somerset County Council.

The White Ball landfill site lies off the A38 to the west of Wellington, a short distance from the Devon border.

The John Luffman Group applied to the county council for permission to turn the site into a new facility for processing “inert waste”, such as building aggregate and soil.

The council’s regulation committee gave the plans the go-ahead when it met in Taunton on Thursday morning (November 7).

Under the proposals, the site will accept up to 15 deliveries per working day of soil, concrete, asphalt and other similar materials.

These will be reprocessed and recycled into material which can be transported off-site and resold.

Mr Luffman told the council he expected the site to be operational for only one week in every four at most, based on current levels of demand.

Planning officer Barnaby Gubb said in his written report: “The proposal is not considered to generate significant traffic movements. being around 15 HGVs per day.

“It will not have a detrimental impact on Somerset’s local and strategic transport networks, and a suitable access to the site is already in place.”

The Luffman Group plans to build a bund at the northern end of the site to reduce the noise levels for nearby properties when its processing machinery is in operation.

The committee voted to approve the plans, on the condition that the site only operate on weekdays between 8am and 5pm, and that the site should handle no more than 50,000 tonnes of material in any given year.