Bosses at a recycling plant want to operate 24-hours a day after installing quieter machinery.

J Dickinson and Sons Limited run a waste transfer station and materials recycling facility at Station Road in Blackrod.

A planning application published by Bolton council said there are currently conditions restricting working hours apply at the site. Dickinsons would like to alter working hours to allow 24 hour working inside the main transfer station building.

They said they do not wish to alter the access times for vehicles and it is not proposed to operate any of the external plant outside of the current permitted day time hours. The recycling plant is within Rivington View Business Park.

The building they wish to operate round the clock is used for the treatment of biodegradable household and commercial waste. The application, states: “The building has been renovated and a new electric processing plant has been installed.

“The plant is much quieter than the previous version which was powered by diesel engines. “Processing is by shredding, screening, air density separation, magnetic separation, and manual separation by a picking line.

“The site is bordered by the M61 motorway, the Blackrod wastewater treatment works to the west and beyond that the Preston to Manchester rail line and residential properties off Junction Close.

“It is proposed to extend the operating hours of the transfer station to work 24 hours per day from Monday to Friday and on Saturday until 7pm, with only

maintenance and cleaning carried out on Sundays and bank holidays. “The extended operating hours apply to the indoor processing of materials only, and deliveries and collections will remain within the current daytime operating

hours.”

The report said that the company commissioned a noise assessment found that ‘the night-time noise from operations inside Unit 8 with the door closed would have no impact on the closest residents’.

The company said that 24-hour operation is needed because of increased demand for recovery and recycling. The report, said: “Since the original conditions were set, the type of material that can be recovered has increased dramatically due to both improvements in technology and demand for recycled material.”

The application will be decided on by planners at Bolton Council in the coming weeks.