ANGRY residents living next to a Worcester waste tip were today planning to demonstrate against plans to extend its opening hours.

The Action Against Bilford Road Tip group joined with other concerned residents to take their silent protest to the site, which was due to be visited by county councillors today.

The protesters are angry about plans to open the tip on Sundays and extend the working daily hours from 4pm to 6pm.

"The application was put in front of city planners and the city council agreed with us in opposing the proposals of Severn Waste Services," said action group co-ordinator Helen McCabe.

"They want to have workers on the site from 7.30am every day.

"We already have too much traffic on Bilford Road, it might as well be an A road.

"We had a traffic count on the road between 11am and noon on Saturday, and saw 171 cars and heavy vehicles go into the site. When the park-and-ride comes in, things can only get worse.

"We are especially concerned about the residents of Dickinson Court.

"There are 31 people living there with mental and physical disabilities, including people with sight problems.

"We are also concerned about some impacting equipment the company wants to install which they say will operate for a portion of every hour they are open.

"And they are planning a 2.1m high fence all around the site."

Alan Foster, area director of Severn Waste Services, which manages the Bilford Road site, said residents' concerns had been taken into account in drawing up the planning application.

"We are hoping to refurbish the site and have applied for planning permission for it," he said.

"There is a planning application which included reference to the problems residents had identified, and we hope the planning committee, in its decision, will agree with us that the matters concerning the residents have been addressed in the application.

"We have given information about traffic levels and the compacting equipment and the fence is to offer a screen to the operations."

The decision on the tip will ultimately be made by Worcestershire County Council.