BOOTLE residents fear plans for a new recycling plant will heap industrial blight on their homes. The plant will turn shredded waste from scrap cars into powder and is set to be housed at the EMR metal processing centre at Regent Road, Alexandra Dock. Residents living nearby signed three petitions listing concerns about worsened air quality, smell and noise disturbance the additional facility could create on top of existing pollution problems. Cllr Gordon Friel (Labour, Lineacre Ward) sponsored one of the petitions signed by residents in Kings Terrace, Benedict Street, Clare Road and others, to kick start a consultation. “Residents already look out of their windows onto scrap metal mountains,” he said. “If you go around the roads you see there’s obviously already a problem. There are dust deposits on window ledges and doors. When people see that they are concerned about what it’s doing to their health.” Bedford Road resident Anne Thompson said: “We get the dust, we’ve got the smells and we have no guarantee this facility won’t make the environmental problem worse, not just for us but for our children.” The plan will see the erection of two 25 metre high chimneys. and small amounts of heavy metals such as arsenic emitted into the atmosphere as byproducts. EMR says the plant will divert up to 130,000 tonnes of shredder waste from landfill, create energy and generate around 80 jobs. If planning permission is granted it will be on the condition emissions are monitored to fall within stringent Environment Agency limits. An EMR spokeswoman said the scheme would improve air quality in the area. “Our feeling about it is nothing but positive,” she said. “There will be reduced numbers of HGVs taking shredded waste to landfill, which are currently a substantial cause of poor air quality in the area.” The planning committee cannot consider the cumulative effect from other operations. Cllr Paul Larkin, who has campaigned for public consultation on the proposal, welcomed plans for a new joint working group monitoring the impact of all industrial operations at the dock. Sefton’s planning committee will consider the proposal at a public meeting at Bootle Town Hall on February 10. | 
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