PLANS to restore a landfill site may take two more years as 85,000 tonnes of material are needed to fill the facility before it closes for good.

Cumbria County Council has approved plans to extend the life of The Bennett Bank tip off Hawthwaite Lane in Barrow by up to two more years to complete its restoration.

FCC Environment, which manages the waste collection and disposal on behalf of Barrow Borough Council, submitted a planning application to extend the life of the facility which was approved by the county council on April 5.

The Bennett Bank tip has been in operation since 1972 and was due to close in December 2017.

For many years, the site has provided a clinical waste transfer facility. This is a lockable container used for the receipt, storage and bulked removal of clinical waste.

Planning permission was then granted in 2018 to allow the disposal of waste and storage of fridges and clinical waste for a further two years until December 31, 2019, with plans to restore the facility by December 31, 2021.

Waste importation has now ceased, and the site is in the process of being restored.

Despite gaining planning permission to extend the life of the site by a further six months up until June 30, 2022, FCC submitted further plans to prolong the restoration period.

A two-year extension to that period is required due to a ‘shortage of available restoration soils’ in the area, according to a planning statement submitted by FCC.

Plans state that there remains approximately 85,000 tonnes of restoration material to be imported to the site in order to achieve the approved restoration contours.

It states: “Based on the availability of material, it is anticipated that a further 22 months beyond the current date of June 30, 2022 may be required to import the remaining quantum of restoration material.

“Once all restoration material has been imported to the site, a further two months will be required to complete site restoration.

“A two-year timescale is considered to be conservative but would in no way prevent restoration from happening more quickly if sufficient restoration material becomes available.”

Cumbria County Council also greenlit plans to continue the use of the facility during the extended period of site restoration due to demand.

FCC insists that there would be no change to the way in which the site is managed or to the existing environmental controls which are in place.