Council secures permission for major operational services centre

Torridge District Council has been granted approval to build a major new Operational Services Centre at Cleave Wood, East-the-Water. 

The new facility, located across from the Alverdiscott Industrial Estate, will be the main hub for the council’s waste, recycling, and street cleansing operations.

The centre will include office space for staff, vehicle maintenance workshops, and parking for the council’s fleet. 

It will not handle black bag domestic waste or recycled materials.

ABOVE: Aerial image of the site. Credit: Torridge District Council

Strategically positioned within a 10-mile radius of 50 per cent of the district’s waste and recycling collections, the site offers easy access to material processing facilities in Brynsworthy, Barnstaple, and Deepmoor via the nearby Instow Junction of the A39.

The new centre will also provide several community benefits:

• An educational resource centre for local schoolchildren.
• An attenuation pond for pond dipping, accessible to the local primary school.
• The Drovers trail, with enhanced edible hedgerows, will be retained and connected to Manteo Way.
• Improved cycle routes linking Manteo Way and Alverdiscott Road.

Construction is expected to start by the end of 2024 and will take around one year to complete.

Councillor Ken James, Leader of Torridge District Council and Councillor Chris Leather, Lead Member for Operational Services, Torridge District Council, said: “We are delighted that planning permission has been secured for the new operational services centre – it is very much needed.  The team is currently operating across four dated and poorly serviced sites that pre-date our responsibility to collect recycled material.  We have been actively seeking to acquire a site to consolidate the Operational Services facility since 2015 – so we are pleased that we can finally begin to move forward to provide a new purpose-built site.”