Residents living around Braintree will have to move cars off the street to allow huge lorries to access the site of a controversial incinerator being built nearby.

While it should not be necessary to remove fences, councillors were told it may be necessary to trim hedges and trees to get the large loads through.

Lorries transporting piling rigs 35m long, 3.7m wide and 4.8m high have been given permission by Essex County Council’s development and regulation committee to travel through small villages to the Rivenhall Integrated Waste Management Facility ( IWMF ).

The consent allows 10 abnormal loads to access not via the A120 from the north, as initially conditioned, but via Woodhouse Lane to the south of the site.

This would mean lorries leaving the A120 and travelling through Tye Green and Silver End, before turning into Woodhouse Lane.

Accessing the site via the north requires travelling over two bailey-style bridges over the River Blackwater which the developer has not been able to establish could hold the piling rig loads.

Alternatives have been considered by developer Indaver to enable the existing access to the site to be used, including breaking the piling rigs into parts, lifting them with a crane over the river, but the conclusion is the only option at this time is to go via Woodhouse Lane.

Ross Playle, Conservative councillor for Witham Northern, said the developers had "assured the community and councillors they would never have to use the Woodhouse Lane access for construction traffic.

“Indeed it was a condition this council inscribed in the initial planning condition.

“Today is not about our opposition to the incinerator although we are, but the wholly unacceptable proposals by the developer to cause significant disruption and risk to the public highways and residents in my local community.”

Planning committee member councillor John Jowers said many people accept in other circumstances having to move their car during road surfacing but also that the case represents an example of force majeure – a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties is presented.

He said: “It may not be very pleasant, it certainly is not going to be acceptable to a lot of people but in a sense it is force majeure."

East Anglian Daily Times: Cllr James Abbott has been working with the local community for nearly 30 years to oppose a major waste site at Rivenhall.Cllr James Abbott has been working with the local community for nearly 30 years to oppose a major waste site at Rivenhall. (Image: Archant)

After the meeting, James Abbott, Green district councillor for Silver End and Cressing ward, said the decision was another "moving of the goalposts" which was steadily weakening the original conditions placed on the waste site development.

He added: "Those conditions were first set down in 2009 by a planning inspector to reassure local communities that all waste site traffic must use the dedicated private haul road from the A120."

Green County councillor Paul Thorogood, Braintree Eastern division, said: "If the waste incinerator becomes operational, it will be local communities paying the price with up to 404 HGV movements per day in and out of the site and 24/7 emissions from the incinerator stack, which is a major worry for people on health grounds.

"As local councillors we are regularly asked about the plans for the incinerator, including from people thinking of moving to this area who are concerned that it may be built."

He felt the abnormal loads application should have been refused and Indaver should be required to strengthen the bridges on the haul road before they bring construction loads in.