Aviemore tip is set for unexpected new lease of life
Badenoch and Strathspey’s only landfill site could be about to get an unexpected extra lease of life.
Highland Council has applied for an amendment to the current time limits on the use of land for waste disposal at Granish, north of Aviemore.
The existing planning permission for landfilling requires the current operation to come to an end by March 31, next year, with landscaping to be carried out by the spring 2024 planting season.
However, the local authority now wants to continue the use of the site up to the end of 2025.
Council bosses have said that this will ensure that ‘the void space remaining within the site is utilised effectively’.
They lodged an application to extend the lifetime of the tip with Highland Council’s planning service in Kingussie earlier this week.
A council spokesperson said: “The continued success of recycling services for householders and businesses in Badenoch and Strathspey has resulted in further reductions in the quantity of municipal wastes requiring disposal at Granish landfill site.
“Mixed municipal waste deposits continue to reduce since the last planning extension was granted in 2020, resulting in the site capacity being used up more slowly than expected at the time of the application.”
The proposed time extension does not require any physical extension to the extent of landfilling at the site.
The submission includes a revised restoration profile for the site.
The spokesperson said: “By steepening the southern slope to a maximum gradient of one in three, the remaining void capacity has been increased, thereby ensuring that the site will be ready for restoration in line with the time extension requested.”
The Scottish Government has announced a ban on the landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste.
It was originally intended to start in 2021 but the implementation date has now been extended to 2025.
The recent construction of a waste transfer station at Granish will form part of the council’s longer-term waste strategy, replacing the reliance on landfill in due course.
