Date: 08/10/2007

ONE lorry every four minutes is set to come and go from a controversial giant waste depot planned for Portobello, it was revealed today. A full planning application lodged with the city gives details of how a £7 million scheme would transform a former rail freight yard off Sir Harry Lauder Road into a waste transfer station. The company behind the scheme insists the roads around the site are capable of handling the extra traffic. But campaigners say it is only the tip of the iceberg and adds to fears over noise, smells and vermin from the site. They today vowed to fight for extra time to object to the scheme and warned it would "ruin" their town. The new plant, which would be privately run by the council's main waste contractor Viridor, has been widely tipped as a potential replacement for the city's dilapidated facility at Powderhall. However, the Portobello plant could handle more than twice as much waste as Powderhall and would be open to residential and commercial waste before it was transferred by rail to a Viridor landfill site in East Lothian. [Evening News 5 October]

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