A COUNCILLOR has said wasted energy at a skip hire site could be used to heat a primary school near Malvern.

Councillor Paul Denham said the county council should use more joined-up thinking when it received some planning applications and said it was "criminal" that better use of energy waste and by-products was not being made.

Worcestershire County Council's planning committee approved retrospective plans for two biomass boilers at a skip hire site between Leigh Sinton and Bransford at the beginning of December and Cllr Denham said the site's waste energy could be put to better use to heat a nearby primary school.

Whilst welcoming the plans as beneficial for Leigh Sinton - particularly as the energy generated would be useful in powering the rest of the village - Cllr Denham said some of the waste could help power and reduce costs for Leigh and Bransford Primary School through a pipeline.

He said: “My only regret is that I wished there was a bit more joined-up thinking sometimes across this council.

“We have a school nearby that could be heated with the excess heat produced by this plant as we were told on site [during a visit by councillors].

“It seems criminal to me that heat is going to be just generated and wasted when it could actually be used and save the running costs of that school.

“For goodness sake I would hope that when we get planning applications like this that some officer has the sense to talk to colleagues elsewhere in this council and see if we could have a bit more joined up thinking and make use of this possibility because that would be of great benefit to that school.”

Go Greener Recycling, who run the site in Guinness Park Farm near Malvern, have already installed but is not yet using two biomass boilers – which are run by scrap wood such as pallets and old bits of furniture.

The approved plans also allows for a washing plant to clean contaminated wood to be built.

Two water ponds will also be built as a safety measure in case of fire and the site's Saturday opening hours will be extended to 5pm.

Go Greener Recycling said the new application was in response to the business growing and to update a number of “outdated” planning permissions.