AN EXTRA Wirral landfill site that could handle Merseyside’s waste has emerged – next to an area primed for a £1m makeover.

One councillor has said the site’s 11th-hour inclusion in a city region-wide consultation is “astonishing”.

When Wirral Council agreed to allow Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service (MEAS) to go ahead with a public consultation, councillors were told of just five potential landfill sites.

But the published list from MEAS includes a sixth – Bromborough Dock North.

The site is next to a decades-old landfill currently being wound up. The Biffa-owned Bromborough Dock South tip is being filled with sand ahead of being landscaped into a £1m public park.

Nearby homeowners had hoped for respite from dustcarts from Liverpool and elsewhere in Merseyside.

But the site’s inclusion has sparked fears a new landfill will open just metres from the first.

Bromborough councillor Steve Niblock said last night: “It’s astonishing that this site seems to have come in at such a late stage in the process.

“The previous list didn’t include Bromborough, but another list has been published.

“If it [Bromborough Dock North] is still on a list, it’s a potential site, which means after 20 years of discomfort from noise and flies and dust and the traffic – you get to the point where that’s over and they will finish off and it will be a public open space, but then they throw this at us.

“Why should the people of Bromborough have to continue to suffer for another 20 years?”

Cllr Niblock said he would be raising a petition against the site being used for a landfill.

The other five possible sites highlighted by MEAS are at Irby Quarry, at Irby Mill; the North Wirral Brickworks, Carr Lane, in Hoylake; Moreton Landfill, at the Old Brickworks, Tarran Way, Moreton; along with Prenton Quarry, Prenton Dell; and Lower Farm, Roman Road, both in Prenton.

Alan Jemmett, MEAS project director, denied the Bromborough site had been surreptitiously included in the final consultation.

He said the published list included only the top 30% of sites after they had been scored by analysts.

After the draft list was distributed to councils, some of the sites in the top third had to be removed because they had already been developed.

This meant sites – including Bromborough Dock North – which were just outside the top 30%, were kept in the list for consultation.

Mr Jemmett told the Daily Post: “When Wirral Council said yes [to the consultation], they weren’t saying yes to the technical content of that report, they were saying yes to the start of a consultation process.

“The report that went to all the consultants and committees was a report that was going through changes. It was a draft report. It’s a very clear and transparent process.”

A Wirral Council spokeswoman added: “Wirral Council only became aware of the additional site following MEAS’s publication of the final report for public consultation.

“We have notified residents at the proposed Bromborough site as we have with other potential sites as part of the normal consultation process.

“Wirral Council will consider all sites in its formal response to the consultation process.

“The council has only agreed the sites for publication. Agreements for public consultation should not he taken as endorsements for any of the sites.”

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