Plans to build the UK’s largest industrial recycling centre in Mitcham were met with public outcry at a meeting last night.

Residents packed the Vestry Hall to voice their concern over proposals which include the construction of two towers and a chimney up to 16 storeys tall - more than twice the height of the nearby Mitcham Parish Church.

Up to 700 trucks a day are also expected to visit the site in Benedict Wharf off Church Road, dumping commercial waste for recycling.

Cricket Green ward councillor, Ian Munn, said: “This is the biggest scheme in the whole of the UK - nothing like this has ever been proposed before.

“Traffic will come barreling through a conservation area and make life difficult for so many people.

“And the bad news is that the Mayor of London thinks in principle that this is a good idea.”

Boris Johnson has earmarked the site as a potential location for a facility of this sort - but a full planning application awaits adjudication by Merton Council.

No representatives from the recycling company, SITA, were at the meeting but a Merton planning officer was present, noting resident’s concerns.

The centre uses a process called anaerobic digestion, sparking fears that the potentially harmful by-product nitrogen dioxide would be released into the area.

Coun Munn added: “I’m not an expert, but I do know that nitrogen dioxide causes respiratory problems and smog.”

Residents expressed their opposition to the proposal, including the noise level and smell of lorries entering the site from 7am every weekday, and the visual damage to the Cricket Green environment.

“A couple of years back they were talking about Mitcham as an urban village. I just wonder if a project like this would ever be considered in Wimbledon Village,” said one of more than 100 locals at the meeting.

Another added: “It’s not that we’re opposed to the recycling of waste, we’re just saying that is totally inappropriate for the area.”

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