WITH reference to the letter ‘Many Questions about Waste Plant’ from D Williams (The Cumberland News, December 23), Carlisle is sleepwalking and being hoodwinked into an intolerable situation especially in the areas of Kingmoor, Rockcliffe and Westlinton Parish Councils, and very few at city or county council level (pre or post the reorganisation on April 1, 2023) seem to be taking much notice about local concerns.

The very comprehensive Carlisle Local Plan is being generally ignored for whatever reason and the new schemes being mooted for the area seem opposite to the original intentions for the area.

Putting aside the potential pollution and environmental issues and concentrating on the impact of HGVs in the area, the first problem is that the roads between two proposed pyrolysis plants (one at Heathlands and the other at Rockcliffe), the routes from the northern bypass and from the end of the arterial road to Rockcliffe and Heathlands are all rural, single carriageway with no footpaths or cycle ways.

Alternative routes include the roads passed ASDA at Kingstown which are used by many cyclists and pedestrians.

Examples of the existing HGV usage is as follows:

  • timber into and the product out of the BSW Plant near Cargo and Edenside;
  • tankers and plant operated by Andidrain in and out of the Rockcliffe site;
  • Brampton Skips traffic in and out of the Rockcliffe Site and to Hespin Wood;
  • woodchip from BSW to Hespin Wood;
  • waste into the Rockcliffe NW Recycling Depot at Rockcliffe;
  • waste from recycling depots such as Rome Street to Hespin Wood and Rockcliffe;
  • other miscellaneous traffic in and out of the Kingmoor Industrial Estate

If proposed planning applications go ahead involving a pyrolysis plant for plastic and another for rubber and tyres at Heathlands and Rockcliffe, one figure is that to keep these two plants operating 24/7 will require some 60 new HGV loads a week to feed them.

The proposed incineration plant at Kingmoor will attract further HGV traffic including moving Refuse Derived Fuel from Hespin Wood.

At this time, there appear to be no figures for the volume of reusable materials being taken from the pyrolysis plants.

In addition to the existing domestic housing in the area, plans are afoot for more homes to be added to the Crindledyke Farm Estate, new housing on the old RAF Site at Harker plus the new homes on the former Deer Park reserve at Kingmoor.

All these developments add more light traffic to the existing road network.

I ask that our two MPs and our county, city and parish councillors wake up and look at the big picture with the planning authorities and national government to decide just what the area is to become; is it to be the dumping ground and recycling centre for northern England and southern Scotland or is it to be a residential area, albeit with another 1,000 new homes?

We can’t have both.

A L PARRINI, MBE
Rockcliffe
Carlisle