SELBORNE Parish Council heard this week that it had failed to stall a decision over a waste management licence to infill clay pits at Selborne Brickworks.

It was agreed last week that the clerk of the council, Lyn Yeomans, should contact MP James Arbuthnot, to see if he could do anything to get the Environment Agency's decision (due to be made on Wednesday) delayed.

The decision was not available as The Herald went to press, but Mrs Yeomans said she had heard that the Environment Agency was unwilling to delay the matter.

The parish council had decided to write to Hampshire County Council to see if there was a way to make lorries avoid the main villages of Oakhanger and Blackmoor.

Parish councillors expressed their concern about 32 tonne lorries travelling through the two villages to get to the clay pits at Selborne Brickworks.

It was felt by delaying the licence a designated lorry route could be worked out so that lorries would avoid the villages.

A total of 231 people have signed a petition started by the Oakhanger Preservation Society, demanding a public inquiry to look into the licence application.

With time running out, the parish council decided at its meeting last Wednesday to pull out all the stops to get the Environment Agency's decision delayed.

In a statement, the parish council said: "For several months now we have attacked the granting of this licence from every conceivable angle.

"As soon as the application was received, a sub-committee of parish councillors met on two afternoons to formalise a reply to the Environment Agency, putting forward many points as to why this licence should not be granted."

TJ Landfill has applied to the Environment Agency to fill the claypits at the brickworks with 105,000 tonnes of inert waste per annum for three years.

Cline Kilner believed it might be worth the parish council and the Oakhanger Preservation Society meeting with TJ Landfill if it was clear a licence would be granted.

She suggested they might "appeal to their humanity" to route their lorries away from the village centre.

"We cannot have 40 lorries for three years for 50 weeks of the year going through Oakhanger," said Mrs Kilner.

Other councillors believed it was better to try and stall the Environment Agency and agreed the letters should be sent to the MP and to the county council.