SOMERSET County Councillors are set to decide on whether a new materials reprocessing factory can be built in Westonzoyland.

The new facility is planned for a 1.3 hectare site, located to the north of the existing Springway Lane Business Park on the former airfield site.

The plan is to establish a materials reprocessing factory (MRF) where hardcore and aggregates, road planings, topsoil, wood and green waste can be recovered, sorted, and recycled prior to being dispatched from the plant for re-use.

It is anticipated that up to 50,000 tonnes of waste would be processed at the site each year.

This would see hardcore and road planings crushed where necessary into various-sized aggregate, soils screened into topsoils and subsoils, wood chipped for biomass boilers, and green waste shredded for off-site composting.

To facilitate this the factory will need a crusher, screener, front-loader, shredder and wheeled excavator.

It is proposed the site would operate 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, with the possibility of occasional working 7am to 1pm on Saturday.

Access to the site is proposed via an existing farm track that links the northernmost part of the site to the A372.

The proposed operations would generate around 36 HGV movements per day.

Westonzoyland Parish Council is objecting the proposal, citing concerns over 'previous unauthorised development on the site', environmental impacts, proximity of residential properties and adverse effects on the nearby Langmead Site of Special Scientific Interest and highways.

However the Environment Agency has not raised an objection, nor has the ecological adviser or highways development control.

Somerset County Council officers propose that the application should be granted subject to a series of conditions.

The decision will be made at Somerset County Council's regulation committee this week.