The former Bagshot Community Recycling Centre, permanently closed by Surrey County Council in March is to become a storage depot for coaches and lorries.

The change can happen after plans for the Swift Lane site were approved at the Thursday, September 18 meeting of Surrey Heath Borough Council’s planning committee.

The site, adjacent to the Swan Lane Gypsy and Traveller pitches, is owned by the council but will be leased out to a private firm.

The meeting heard that the land could not be used for much-needed additional pitches for three reasons.

The first was that the old recycling land would still be classed as contaminated and unsuitable for housing.

The second was that the existing site is expected to be extended to 20 pitches – the top end of what the council said was ideal. The final reason is that the new depot sits on flood-risk land.

The council did not, however, rule out extending the site further in the future. Councillor Cliff Betton (Liberal Democrats: Mytchett and Deepcut) said: “The site was operated by Surrey County Council, they decided to close it, so why are we looking at storing a few trucks that may or may not want to be stored there when we could be looking at development of a site for travellers?”

The approved plans, voted through unanimously by councillors, will be able to store up to seven large lorries or coaches.

It’s permitted hours of operation at present will be from Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm in an effort to minimise disturbance for those living next door.

Any moves to extend those hours, say if the site be used to house school buses, would need to be looked at a future date.

Papers presented to the meeting read, “Due to the previous use of the site, the openness of the green belt was already compromised to some extent by the recycling containers and former activity associated with the use.

“The proposed development would not result in an intensification of trips generated to the site nor would it result in any adverse safety implications to the highway network.”