TWO councils are preparing for a real scrap over the future of a recycling centre.

Whip Street Motors wants to develop a new metal recycling centre on the opposite side of the road from its current yard on the west bank of the Orwell.

Because the application involves a recycling centre, it will be decided by Suffolk County Council and not the borough.

The new site would be much larger than its existing yard – and there would be a legal agreement to say the existing site would be closed.

The county council’s planning officers are recommending that its development control committee gives planning permission for the development when it meets on December 18.

They point out that there would be stringent conditions to govern the hours the site could work and the noise that it would be allowed to generate – and say that the proposal is in accordance with national planning policy and the local development plan.

However the borough council is objecting to the proposal – and is backed in its objection by developers who are hoping to build new homes on the other side of Great Whip Street.

The borough says the land is earmarked for housing, and having a large recycling centre so near homes would be unacceptable.

Whip Street Motors also has a larger centre at Paper Mill Lane in Claydon.