RESIDENTS are concerned a proposed £100 million waste plant off the North Circular would add to traffic congestion in the area.

North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has been holding exhibitions displaying its plans for land in Pinkham Way, where it wants to development a major new hub for waste filtering and recycling.

Sylvia Gossett, 74, moved into the area with her husband Tony in the Fifties, and remembers the old sewage works which used to sit on the Pinkham Way site.

She said: “I think they have probably chosen that site because it will disturb the fewest residents.

“Having looked at the plans, I think we will be far enough away that it won't affect us, although when we first moved in, you could smell the old sewage works on a windy day.”

Mrs Gossett expressed concerned that 560 trucks a day going in and out of the site would have an impact on the already-congested part of the North Circular.

She said: “I think the traffic will become worse, and people will start using roads near us like Friern Barnet Road to avoid the traffic.”

The site will take in a third of the annual waste produced by residents of Barnet, Haringey, Enfield, Islington, Camden, and Waltham Forest.

Some residents at the exhibition, at St Paul's Church Hall in High Road, New Southgate, worried the site would dominate the landscape and make the area a dumping ground for North London, but most accepted the principle of recycling was a good one to pursue.

The new site will not be an incinerator, as some rumours had suggested, but John Cox, an environmental campaigner against incineration, argued the plans were not finalised and the type of waste development plant on the Pinkham Way has yet to be decided.

He said: “They don't even know what it will look like, and they have said to the five bidders for the contract if they don't like this site then they can come up with their own plans.

“The devil will be in the detail.”

NLWA is negotiating with several firms to take on the contract for waste disposal across North London, which is likely to include management of the Pinkham Way waste development site if it gets approval.

An application for outline planning permission is due to be submitted to Haringey Council shortly, and will go out to formal consultation with residents during the next couple of months.