Bucks Recycling has been given the green light to continue to trade at Westcott Venture Park, having obtained permanent planning permission from Buckinghamshire County Council.
Unlike most business sectors, if you want to work with waste you need planning permission in order to do so. Established in 2000, Bucks Recycling has spent the last 14 years working to achieve permanent planning consent, which has this month been granted allowing the firm to grow and prosper.
Tricia Murray, managing director at Bucks Recycling explains: “This is a big deal for us as it means the company now has a more certain future, where as before we were just wondering if we would still be trading in two years from now. We are very excited about the opportunities this presents, gaining this consent has opened doors for us and we are now able to expand, develop and diversify as well as being able to employ our staff on permanent contracts and invest in their on going training and development.”
On moving to WVP in 2011 Bucks Recycling secured a five-year planning consent in order to trade, aware of the complex and lengthy process involved in achieving permission, the firm took no time in submitting their application. Initial concerns regarding noise were abated with an agreed solution to build an acoustic bund in order to shield the noise of Bucks Recycling operations from the village.
Bucks Recycling is now investing heavily in staff training, new equipment and are planning to refurbish their Hangar premises including: installing air conditioning in the Picking Station, sky lights on the roof, new eco efficient lighting, full shot blasting then repainting the exterior of the building.
“We were under a shadow before we achieved planning but can now look to the future and are working to develop the business by focussing on the amount of waste we recycle - doing more with the waste we collect. We are already making kindling as a product and have plans to create an animal-bedding product for local farmers. We are also investing a lot of money in training so we have a 50 strong team of qualified people in waste, transport, accounting and management.”
“The news that we can now stay at Westcott has had a huge ripple effect, we’ve hired four extra drivers and everybody is feeling upbeat as they can see we are investing in their personal development as well as the business as a whole” says Tricia.
