THE operators of a controversial recycling plant in Leith have gone into liquidation.
The Alba Recycling site on Bath Road had been at the centre of protests in the local community, amid claims it had been operating without the correct planning permission.
City councillors agreed to take enforcement action to shut it down, while th
e Scottish Environment Protection Agency also banned it from taking in any more rubbish over concerns about a "stockpile" of waste on the site.
Alba hit back and said the site never legally required planning permission.
However, it has now been confirmed that the company went into liquidation on April 22, with accountancy firm Deloitte and Touche appointed to deal with the company's assets.
Yesterday, the gates to the site were padlocked and the plant was deserted.
Leith councillor Gordon Munro said: "A company going into liquidation is never usually good news. However, this will hopefully see the end of speculative and tenuous planning applications in Bath Road which were of huge concern to the local community."
Leith Links Residents' Association, which has been battling with the plant for nearly three years, was celebrating the news.
Linda Tarbuck, chairperson of the association, said: "It would be a great relief if it was all at an end. I would be delighted.
"We have been fighting for this for nearly three years now. I'm certainly not against recycling, but they had no permission for a change of use of the site from a goods storage site to a waste transfer and sorting plant."
The Bath Road plant was licensed to store up to 24,000 tonnes of waste, but the association and council chiefs have argued for years that it never had planning permission.
The company said it did not need permission as the site was owned by Network Rail and some materials were removed by rail, meaning it would benefit from development permission granted to railway activities.
A spokesman for Deloitte and Touche said that the accountancy firm could not comment on the future of the company.
He said: "I can confirm that Brian Milne has been appointed as liquidator and (managing director) Theresa Binnie has been invited to attend a meeting, which is scheduled for Friday."
He said the firm would await the outcome of the meeting.
The full article contains 389 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
