Plans for extended waste site at Harewood Whin near Rufforth are scrapped

Waste firm Yorwaste has withdrawn its scheme for the Harewood Whin site near Rufforth, as campaigners were preparing to fight the scheme at a planning inquiry.

Rufforth and Knapton Action Group’s Dan Russell said: “Obviously the residents of Rufforth are delighted that Yorwaste have seen sense and decided that a permanent waste recycling factory in the green belt is not a sensible idea.”

The group was set up to oppose Yorwaste’s plans for Harewood Whin and Local Plan proposals for both housing and gipsy and traveller sites in the greenbelt near their villages. Activists learned of Yorwaste’s change of heart earlier this month.

The Harewood Whin plans, for a recycling plant and waste transfer station, were given the go-ahead by City of York Council last November, but in February they were called in for a public inquiry by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Mr Russell said: “We hope that Harewood Whin will now be returned to green belt, as per the original planning consent, and that this isn’t the prelude to further attempts to install a permanent facility in an inappropriate location simply because it is cheap for Yorwaste and CYC.

“This is an industrial activity that belongs in an appropriate industrial area.”

A Yorwaste spokesman said: “We will now be taking time to consider future requirements for waste management and recycling infrastructure before deciding on our next steps.”

But City of York Council has confirmed that the Harewood Whin site is still an important part of the minerals and waste plan, currently being worked out by the council and neighbouring North Yorkshire County Council and the North York Moors National Park.

York’s head of environmental management, Martin Grainger, said: “Although Yorwaste has withdrawn their application for Harewood Whin, the site remains an important location which is being considered in the emerging Joint Waste and Minerals Plan.”