Whitehead asks for more time to complete Wigan landfill project 

The company leading the restoration of a former landfill site in Astley Green has requested an extra six years to get the job done after a slowdown in the availability of materials required to finish the scheme. 

Once the spoil tip for Astley Green Colliery, the site was used as a landfill from around 1997 until 2012 when it was mothballed due to a “downturn in the supply of appropriate quantities of waste material”. 

Four years after the landfill was mothballed, Whitehead Restoration was granted approval to restore the 290-acre site, transforming it into land for agriculture. 

At that time, it was anticipated that the scheme would complete by June 2020. 

However, due to a lack of material available to infill the site, Wigan Council permitted Whitehead an extension of time to June 2024. 

Now, because the issue around the availability of suitable material has endured, the company is seeking an additional extension to 2030. 

“The rate of infilling of suitable restoration materials originally anticipated has not materialised”, a planning statement by Sirus Planning said. 

The lack of suitable material is put down to a general slowdown in construction output and economic uncertainty. 

“Whitehead Restoration is dependent on development projects and local construction jobs in the region to generate suitable restoration material for infilling,” the statement said.  

It added that the scarcity of such material was compounded by the Covid pandemic, “which resulted in further significant reductions as economic activity slowed and development projects came to a halt, especially during the lockdown periods.” 

Whitehead Restoration is a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Earth Developments, which is headquartered in Wigan.