A six-week consultation on an environmental permit for a new recycling facility near Newtown has been launched.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) wants the views of the community before they carry out a full technical assessment for the proposed North Powys Bulking Facility in Abermule.

Powys County Council has applied for an environmental permit to operate a new facility for the bulking of non-hazardous material from kerbside collections.

They propose to accept and process up to 22,500 tonnes per year of non-hazardous waste, with a maximum of 425 tonnes on site at any one time prior to being transferred offsite for further recovery or disposal.

NRW says that the only ‘treatment’ would be the bulking up of materials which would arrive pre sorted to site, meaning no sorting or separating of wastes on site.

Ann Weedy, NRW Operations Manager in mid Wales, said: “We know that people have strong views on the proposed development and want to have their say on it. It is because of this that this consultation will run for six weeks instead of the standard four weeks.

“The relevant feedback from this consultation will help inform our full technical assessment of the permit application. We will then come to a draft decision and ask for views on that before making our final determination.”

The environment body is seeking feedback specifically on the application for an environmental permit and cannot consider matters that relate to the planning system, such as traffic levels in the village.

A virtual engagement event will also be held as part of the consultation process which will give residents a chance to ask questions about the application and the assessment process.

The virtual engagement event will take place between 1pm and 7pm on Thursday, June 3, where people can book a 20-minute slot to ask questions and discuss the application with a member of NRW’s Permitting Team and a member from the local Environment Team.

Slots can be booked by emailing permittingconsultations@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk by Monday, May 31. The calls will take place over Microsoft Teams, which NRW says allows for video calling and screen sharing in real time. Microsoft Teams calls can also be accessed via a standard telephone if preferred.

The application has been identified as a High Public Interest (HPI) permit application, meaning that NRW acknowledges that this application is already of high interest to people in the community.

The closing date for comments is July 1. For more information visit here.