LAND contamination and conservation studies of the Abermule site earmarked for a controversial Bulking Waste Facility, will be able to go ahead.

The methodology will need to be examined and agreed before the studies start, but Powys County Council's planning committee reluctantly agreed to the discharge application.

Since the committee approved the Bulking Waste Facility application in August, they have come in for heavy criticism from protesters in the village.

The original planning application was passed by just one vote, and this time, seven councillors abstained from voting.

Martin Aymes, founder of protest group Abermule Communities Together, spoke against the conditions discharge:

Mr Aymes said :"Once again as happens so often with Abermule recycling there appears to be a rush.

"The application is in front of the committee only 13 days after it's been received and validated.

"Approving this request would give the green light for excavation works on site, when there is no report of success or otherwise of the the clearance of newts from there.

"Further trapping and other Newt mitigation work might be needed before giving the report and could affect the methodology being applied for."

Mr Aymes claimed that PCC as applicants were already breaching planning regulations and that giving them the green light on this could see the authority carry on with disregard to planning policy.

He also said that there had been no consultation on the discharge application.

Principal planning officer Holly Hobbs said that there was no statutory requirement for consultation over a discharge application.

Plaid Cymru councillor Elwyn Vaughan, who represents Glantwymyn, urged for caution with the application:

"With the history of this site I think it's extremely important that we do everything by the book, we need to be seen to be as whiter than white.

"I know it's not a statutory obligation, we all know community councils meet once a month or every six weeks, they have only had six days and we should give them the chance to respond," said Cllr Vaughan.

Liberal Democrat councillor Kathryn Silk, who represents Bwlch, said: "It's important that we don't treat this application differently to others.

"It's critical we police  our own authority."

Ms Hobbs replied that the application had not been given any special treatment and had been processed "as we would any other".

She said that agreeing the methodology would then be decided first before the investigations take place

Cllr Silk added: "We are just having to behave like a planning committee and so we have to deal with what's in front of us. And it does not make us popular people.

"It's not our decision where this thing goes it's just dealing with the application before us."

"Because I've been reassured that this has been dealt with exactly as it should have been I'm happy to move the application."

On Tuesday night, at a packed public meeting in Abermule, Highways, Recycling and Assets portfolio holder, Conservative Cllr Phyl Davies who represent Blaen Hafren, told villagers that they had a small window of time to try and find a similar site so that the development could be moved there.

This followed hours of discussion during which councillors and officers stressed that the facility  would help the authority deal with hitting Welsh Government recycling targets of 70 per-cent by 2024/25.