WAVERLEY Borough Council is raising no objection to the reopening of the dormant Alton Road sandpit, despite receiving a host of letters from Wrecclesham residents fearing a return to the bad old days of vermin, noise, smells and pollution.

The new leaseholder of the 100-acre site, Wiltshire-based Earthline Ltd, wants to restart sand and clay extraction and infilling in an operation involving the same amount of materials approved when planning consent was granted in 2002.

The company has applied to extract 770,000 tonnes of sand and 512,000 cubic metres of clay, filling the pit with 2.6 million cubic metres of non-hazardous industrial, commercial, household and inert waste.

Conditions attached to the 2002 consent, which was only briefly implemented, laid down that restoration of the site should be completed over a period of 11-and-a-half years and be completed by the end of 2013.

For full story, see this week's Farnham Herald.