A FIRM looks set to be given the green light to build a plastic recycling centre at its village site.

Colchester Skip Hire was given permission for its controversial waste management facility in Wormingford at appeal in 2012.

The original proposal led residents to set up campaign group Residents Against Skip Hire (Rash) to fight it.

Now the firm has applied to Essex County Council to build an additional recycling facility at the Packards Lane site.

The planning application said the building will “operate a unique processing line” to help sort plastic products.

It added: “The recycled plastics are granulated and then separated, cleaned and dried going through a separate packaging process and quality tested clear plastics by sampling flakes and then testing the mixed coloured plastics by sampling the pellets produced.

“The end products then head offsite to be re-manufactured.”

Wormingford Parish Council objected to the plans. It argued the bid would encroach further on nearby residents and lead to more traffic on the surrounding roads.

Colchester Skip Hire has also applied to amend the site’s operating hours and HGV movements to allow operation on Good Friday.

Both the parish council and Colchester Council objected to this proposal, but Essex County Council officers argued the firm had already demonstrated it could operate on bank holidays “without unacceptable disturbance” to nearby residents.

County Hall’s development and regulation committee will rule on the plans today. Officers have recommended it for approval.

A report, set to go before councillors at the meeting, said: “Environmentally the proposal would take place within an existing waste management facility complex utilising an already available waste stream; adding value to a waste whilst further reducing the potential for residual waste going to landfill.”

The meeting takes place today.