More consultation over proposals for a controversial waste site in Bury St Edmunds is expected to be carried out.

A common complaint raised by members of the public over plans for a waste transfer facility, recycling centre and vehicle depot at Hollow Road Farm was that the site had been chosen ahead of those more suitable.

Communities had called for alternative sites to be included in consultation, saying Hollow Road Farm, off Compiegne Way, was too close to residential properties and raising concerns over traffic.

Dubbed the ‘West Suffolk Operational Hub’, the project is a partnership involving St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Forest Heath District Council and Suffolk County Council.

Yesterday, the borough council announced its cabinet has been recommended to approve further pre-planning application consultation which will consider site selection.

John Griffiths, leader of the St Edmundsbury Borough Council, said: “We have had a large number of responses from people during the consultation period which we extended.

“This has been both informative and very useful enabling us to fully consider and address concerns before any formal planning application is submitted.

“One of the most common questions was from people wanting to know why Hollow Road Farm was chosen as the partnership’s preferred site, so I am asking my cabinet colleagues to approve another further period of consultation to focus on this.”

The hub would have a building where waste collected from across west Suffolk would be bulked together and put into larger lorries and taken to Great Blakenham for disposal.

On the same site would be a household waste recycling centre, replacing the one on Rougham Hill in Bury, and a vehicle depot containing refuse collection vehicles and other council vehicles and workshops replacing the one at Western Way.

The first pre-application consultation resulted in 640 responses and two petitions, with most objecting to the site due to its location and potential traffic issues.

A summary of the consultation comments, with outline responses, is available on www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/wsoh

Full details of the consultations carried out so far will be available when the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is formally submitted with the planning application.

If cabinet approve the next round of consultation at their meeting on Tuesday – as well as Forest Heath’s cabinet on July 14 – a document will be prepared and issued later in the summer for people to be able to view and comment on the case for a combined facility, the criteria used when considering alternative sites and why the partners believe Hollow Road Farm best meets them.