A WASTE transfer station may be built on a trading estate without local councillors debating the issue.

Yorwaste has asked Richmondshire District Council for permission to set up the centre off Gatherley Road, in Brompton-on-Swale.

The project was advertised at the site, and the council's planning officers were poised to make a decision once the statutory consultation period expired.

However, when asked for their opinion, members of Brompton-on-Swale Parish Council were largely unaware of the application and some are now pressing the local authority to take the project to the environment committee to give district councillors a chance to debate and vote on the scheme.

"I am surprised something which could prove controversial may not be referred to the committee," said Councillor Carl Les, who represents Brompton-on-Swale on North Yorkshire County Council.

"It also seems odd that Yorwaste should want another waste transfer station when it has just been given permission for a similar operation at the Tancred quarry nearby."

Businesses nearby are among those planning to resist the waste transfer station.

"It would be devastating for us and other businesses," said Richard Roper of Roper's Caravan World.

"It would be right next door and would cripple us. We have been here 20 years but I am not going to work next door to a rubbish tip. People wouldn't come here."

Other traders are worried the scheme could damage attempts to attract more new firms to the industrial estate, where new units have opened recently.

Richmondshire District Council planning department spokesman, Peter Featherstone, said Yorwaste's application had been earmarked for a decision by the authority's officers as it was on a comparatively small scale.

However, he confirmed it could still be referred to the environment committee for a full debate.

"It is an option,'' he said. "It is something we can decide when we are aware of the details of the application and we know more about the concerns of local people."