Garlaff landfill Site, Skares - Barr Ltd - East Ayrshire Council

transfer station, wheel wash facility and Civic Amenity site (7.3
hectares).
(ii)
(iii)
Area B of the Skares Road opencast site which is currently being
worked (34.6 hectares).
Area C of the Skares Road opencast site from which coals have been
extracted and backfilling operations are nearing completion (42.2
hectares).
(iv) A small area of the existing landfill void of the current Garlaff site (5.4
hectares).
2.4 The immediate surroundings of the site are predominantly rural in nature,
with Skares village being the nearest community to the application site. The area
is otherwise sparsely populated with isolated farmsteads and other residential
properties.
2.5 Proposed Development: Full planning permission is sought for the
extension of the existing landfill site by utilising the void space of Area B of the
current operational opencast site at Skares Road. The operations within Area B
will result in a void space of approximately 4.1 million cubic metres. As an
ancillary development it is also proposed to extract approximately 75,000 tonnes
from a small area (5.4 hectares) within the existing landfill void area at Garlaff as
an extension to the current opencast operations in Area B.
2.6 This small extension to Area B will take approximately 5 to 6 weeks to
work and will prevent the sterilisation of this coal reserve by the proposed landfill
extension. This additional winning and working of coal will also result in a small
increase in the landfill void. The winning and working of coals from this area will
be undertaken by the current operator of the Skares Road site and will be hauled
to the existing coal processing area at Skares Road. Coals will thereafter be
dispatched via lorry using the Skares Road site access.
2.7 The design of the landfill operation will result in the development of a
series of 11 landfill cells, each of approximately 2 hectares in area. The landfill
operations will comprise a general working direction such that the landfill void will
be filled from north to south along the western half of the void. The eastern half of
the void will then be filled from south to north. This direction of working has been
established through the Environmental Impact Assessment process to minimise
the visual impact of the operations from Skares village. This progressive landfill
on a cell by cell basis should enable efficient control of odours and landfill gas,
litter, pests and vermin.
2.8 The landfill void area will be approximately 12 to 18 metres in depth and
will occupy a surface area of 29.9 hectares. Engineering of the void will result in
a containment that will serve as a physical barrier to control off site migration of
gas and leachate. Each cell has been designed to provide 12 to 15 months