HEAVY goods vehicles from a waste site have been banned from driving through a town centre.

In a victory for residents, the announcement means 56 HGVs a day will not drive through Baldock High Street on their way to Bygrave Lodge Farm – an anaerobic waste disposal site nearby.

Applicant BiogenGreenfinch, which was given the green light last year to build the plant on Green Belt land located adjacent to the south of the A505, signed up to the 106 agreement at a development control committee meeting at Herts County Council yesterday (Wednesday).

The 56 trucks – 28 in and 28 out of the site – will now have to use the bypass.

Baldock county councillor Michael Muir said: “I’ve got what I wanted because we don’t want to see HGVs using Baldock. They should use the bypass to go either north or south.

“There are problems with HGVs already in Baldock and a lot of that is due to new satellite navigation systems which don’t have the bypass on it.

“Drivers select the quickest route option on the sat nav and that takes them through Royston Road but that causes huge problems.”

The site will process around 45,000 tonnes of food waste a year and turn it into biogas, which will be converted into electricity and fed back into the national grid.

It is estimated that BiogenGreenfinch’s plant will produce enough power for the equivalent of 3,600 homes.

Food waste from both commercial, industrial and local authority kerbside collection would arrive at the plant by lorry with direct access to the A505.

Last year residents made their fears known after recommendations were made by North Herts District Council to Herts County Council.

Some residents said the Bygrave Lodge Farm development would be an eyesore, create unpleasant odours and increase traffic flow.

Councillors voted unanimously for the agreement which also tied the company into conditions regarding hours of operation, car parking on the site, limit on daily HGV movements, odour management.