POSSIBLE changes to HGV movements in Hatch Warren has been met with frustration by a local ward councillor.

As previous reported in The Gazette, Tamar Renewable Power Basingstoke Ltd had applied to Hampshire County Council to increase the number of trucks passing through Woodbury Road to the anaerobic digestion plant in Kennel Farm, Dummer.

In June 2016, the firm were granted permission to temporarily increase the number of lorries, but it is now applying to make this a permanent measure.

In the plans submitted to the county council Tamar said: “It is considered that the impact on the highway capacity, road safety and amenity of local residents and users of the locality would not be detrimental, as the proposed HGV movements will equate to an average of less than four movements per hour.”

But Hatch Warren and Beggarwood ward councillor, cllr Terri Reid said: “I will give credit to Tamar, they are monitoring the situation a lot better.

“However, they are still using prohibited routes and at the wrong times.”

Cllr Reid added: “The issue is that the county council just don’t seem to want to listen to what we have to say and what our concerns are. The problem we face is that Hampshire’s own road safety officers say that the volume of lorries doing down these roads isn’t a risk.”

The application aims to allow HGVs to move to the Kennel Farm site more freely and that the site does not “does not make allowance for a significant number of vehicles to ‘stack’ and therefore arrival and departures will be reasonably distributed through the permitted times”.

The plans said: “Market changes have meant that more loads are arriving at the lower end of the volume scale and this has led to a need to increase the permitted HGV vehicle movements to account for flexible load volumes and future changes.”

Richard Brooke, commercial director, Tamar Energy, said: “We have applied to Hampshire County Council to make our temporary arrangements for HGV movements to and from our Basingstoke anaerobic digestion (AD) facility a permanent arrangement.

“We’re currently operating under a temporary arrangement with a maximum of 19 HGV travelling to and from the site per working day, or the equivalent of two vehicles per hour.  The temporary arrangement has been in place for nearly 12 months and we are now asking the Council for these limits to be made permanent so we can continue to recycle unavoidable food waste into renewable energy and a natural biofertiliser.  We will continue to operate safely and minimise any impact on the local community."

If anyone has any questions about the site or the traffic management plan they can contact  0800 840 1229 and by email at basingstoke@tamar-energy.com.