WIRRAL residents still face a battle to stop controversial sites being selected for landfill or waste disposal, a councillor warned last night.

Many believed the threat of new landfill sites being created in the borough had receded after Wirral Council said it opposed the six sites highlighted by waste experts.

Last night, Moreton and Saughall Massie councillor Suzanne Moseley said, even though Wirral Council had ruled out the sites, they could still be imposed.

She said: “The fact that the council officers made this recommendation to cabinet might not make any difference.”

Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service (MEAS) had outlined a number of possible sites in the Joint Merseyside Waste Development Plan Document (DPD).

The document had highlighted 10 other sites for different types of waste facilities – many of which were also described by Wirral Council as “not suitable”.

Among the large sites on the list, but judged unsuitable by Wirral Council for waste disposal, are the Graving Docks, in Birkenhead, which the council said would be “contrary to the council’s wider aspirations for the regeneration and renaissance of the area” through the £4bn Wirral Waters scheme.

But most controversial were six landfill or “landraise” sites which provoked outrage from those living in the vicinity of the proposed sites.

They included Bromborough Dock North, which appeared on the list later than the others, Irby Quarry, Carr Lane Brickworks, Tarran Way Brickworks, Prenton Quarry and Roman Road, also in Prenton.

Wirral Council also criticised the release of the list, saying it was “concerned that sites with little realistic prospect of progressing have been presented in a public report without adequate prior assessment, causing needless concern to the public.”