Nearly 150 extra lorries could pass through a village each day if the green light is given for a new commercial rubbish tip.

East Kent Recycling has applied for permission to turn its skip hire depot and vehicle workshop in Cooting Road in Aylesham, near Dover, into a waste management site.

The company’s planning application says expanding the site would mean up to 150 HGVs, about 80% of them skip lorries, entering or leaving Aylesham Industrial Estate each day and passing through its surrounding roads.

This includes the B2046 Adisham Road and A257 Canterbury Road, with up to 20 lorries an hour at peak times - a significant increase on the six HGV trips which the company estimates currently take place each day.

If approved, the facility, which lies 160 metres away from Boulevard Courrieres - a residential street in Aylesham village - would be used to sort skip waste such as timber, plasterboard, metal and furniture.

Waste sorting would run from 6am to 6.30pm from Monday to Friday and 6am to 2pm on Saturdays, with up to 75,000 tonnes of material processed each year.

Lorries would enter and leave the site between 5am and 8pm from Monday to Saturday.

The company applied last year for permission to expand its sister site at Oare Creek in Faversham, which lies adjacent to an environmentally protected Ramsar site, but withdrew its initial application after vociferous objections from residents.

More than 150 objections were lodged by campaigners against increased lorry traffic in an area where levels of nitrogen oxide, a toxic gas which is linked to lung problems, are already in breach of legal limits.

East Kent Recycling, which is waiting for a decision on a fresh bid to expand its Oare site, says the site in Aylesham would employ five people.

It also says a new building would “shield” waste processing operations from view and reduce dust, noise and odours coming from the facility.

When contacted by the Gazette, it did not wish to comment further on the application.

It can be viewed by searching KCC/DO/0474/2018 at www.kentplanningapplications.co.uk