SCOTTISH Borders Council’s latest attempt to create a giant waste transfer station (WTS) at the Easter Langlee landfill site will be resisted “tooth and nail”.

The warning comes from John Birnie, chairman of the Coopersknowe Residents Association, who this week vowed to fight the new planning application for the £4.8 million facility.

He has also compiled a dossier of evidence against the plans on road safety grounds.

As reported by the Border Telegraph last week, the council has resubmitted its bid for the WTS – from which 40,000 tonnes of household waste will be transported out of the region – having failed with a similar plan four months ago.

In April, the council’s own planning committee rejected the proposal, citing the inadequacy of the C77 (Langshaw) road in coping with the projected 88 HGV movements a day which the WTS would generate.

Members of that committee also suggested the council should seek an alternative site for the plant away from an expanding residential area and with easier access to the A68 trunk road.

Since then, the council has commissioned a traffic impact report from consultants Goodson Associates in support of its new bid for the site, where landfill is due to cease next year.

That document concedes nothing can be done to widen the road at the notorious Aislinn Cottage pinch point, but concludes there are “no transport related issues preventing the award of planning consent”.

The firm recommends a package of measures to address road safety concerns including “localised widening of the C77 at key locations to accommodate large vehicles without overrunning the verge, improvements to signage, removal of trees and vegetation which obstruct visibility and improvements to the junction of the C77 and the WTS site”.

But Mr Birnie claims: “These measures will do absolutely nothing to placate the serious road safety concerns of residents, not only of Coopersknowe but of all the new houses in the vicinity. In the past ten years, the local population has gone from virtually nothing to around 1,500 and, with more new houses in the pipeline, we will soon have a settlement that is bigger than Tweedbank.

“At the same time, I’ve amassed a mass of photographic and anecdotal evidence of road accidents resulting from HGVs using the C77 to get to and from the landfill site.

“It is only a matter of time until we have a fatality, so it beggars belief that the council thinks this site, which has caused traffic chaos and dust and odour nuisance to residents, is an appropriate location for a huge transfer station.

“I don’t blame the consultants for coming up with recommendations which suit their council paymasters but I do blame council officers for allowing themselves to be boxed into a corner.”

That is a reference to two significant deadlines the council must meet – 2018 when the Easter Langlee dump reaches capacity and 2021 when the Scottish Government imposes a total ban on all biodegradable waste going to landfill.

“I hope the planning committee will not be swayed by deadlines which the council is struggling to meet through its own incompetence,” said Mr Birnie.

“Apart from the prospect of bin lorries trundling up the hill on a narrow road which physically cannot be widened and has no pavements, the impact of 40-tonne lorries leaving the WTS will be devastating for Galashiels and do nothing to enhance its aspiration to attract tourists.

“With a 26-tonne limit on vehicles using Lowood Bridge and with the Langshaw and Gattonside roads totally inadequate, these lorries will have to go through Galashiels to get to the trunk road network.

“On behalf of all the residents who will be affected, my association intends to fight this crazy proposal tooth and nail.”

The council said: “Following refusal of the WTS application in April, officers considered all the options available to mitigate road safety issues.

“As a result, a new application has been submitted for the same site. The council is confident it can progress a waste transfer station at Easter Langlee before the landfill site reaches its capacity in 2018 and is also confident it can meet its obligations ahead of the landfill ban in 2021.”

If the planning bid, due to be considered by the committee in October, is successful, construction of the WTS will begin in November with completion due for August, 2018.