COUNCIL chiefs are demanding more information before a recycling company is issued a permit for a metal smelting furnace at Glanyrafon Industrial Estate, near Aberystwyth.

The controversial plan from C B Environmental to run the furnace was believed to have been awarded a permit by the council’s environmental health department.

Local councillor Alun Lloyd Jones had been told that the council had no reason to oppose the permit after Public Health Wales accepted a consultant’s report suggesting that the impact on the health of nearby residents would be “insignificant”.

However, the council has now insisted that the permit has not actually been granted and that they are waiting for more information on how the furnace would be monitored.

A spokesperson said: “No permit has been issued by the council in respect of this plant as additional information has been requested from the applicants regarding monitoring provision. Until this information has been received and assessed, the permit will not be issued.”

The consultant’s report had been based on the assumption that the furnace would only operate for one day a month, but the spokesperson insisted that if, as expected, the permit does not limit the operation of the furnace, that would not invalidate the report’s findings.

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