TENDRING civic chiefs are on a collision course with Essex County Council over controversial plans to build a multi-million pound waste complex.

County officials want to put the centre near the A120 at Ardleigh but it has sparked concerns it will cause traffic congestion.

Tendring District Council (TDC) says the road is already running at full capacity and improvements would be needed if the waste site was to go ahead.

The new site, if approved, would ‘bulk’ together Colchester and Tendring’s black bin waste before it is transported to a processing plant in Basildon. Essex County Council says transporting ‘bulked’ waste reduces the number of vehicles required, thereby cutting the environmental impact. At the moment black bin waste from Colchester and Tendring is taken to a landfill site in Stanway, near Colchester.

Carlo Guglielmi, cabinet member for planning at TDC, said the proposal did not make economic or environmental sense.

He added: “We need to make strong representations over this to ensure that highways improvements are brought in.”

Lynda McWilliams, cabinet member for central services at TDC, said: “This will affect Frating and Great Bentley. I am not happy with all Colchester’s rubbish being brought into Tendring and then having to go back out again.”

Sarah Candy, cabinet member for regeneration at TDC, is concerned about the impact on traffic heading for the coast in the summer.

“I have seen figures that show the A120 in that area is already running at virtually full capacity and this will only make matters worse.”

A planning application for the waste station is due to be submitted by Essex County Council later this month.

The authority has been consulting affected communities over the last few weeks, including a public exhibition at Ardleigh village hall.

A spokeswoman for Essex County Council said: “Analysis has shown that the impact of overall vehicle numbers using the road network around the proposed Ardleigh Waste Transfer Station (WTS) is minimal. In addition the vehicles using the WTS will do so primarily outside of peak hours as these vehicles will travel to the site in mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

“Both the Highways Agency and our highways department have indicated during pre-planning application discussion that the current access to and from the A120 to the existing lorry park meets the required standards for the number of vehicles that will use the proposed WTS.

“As statutory consultees both organisations will consider these issues within their formal response to the planning application.”