JUBILANT Milnsbridge residents have won their 18-month battle to close down a waste transfer station.

Residents of Dowker Street, George Street and Armitage Street have been fighting since May 2004 to stop WH Robinson running the operation on its George Street site.

Now, after a public inquiry, the Planning Inspectorate has ordered WH Robinson to cease waste transfer activities at the site.

Within six weeks all waste transfer operations must stop.

This means W H Robinson cannot bring waste to the site, sort it and then transport it away from the site.

It also means scrap metal cannot be sorted on site.

However, the Planning Inspectorate said a traditional scrapyard could still operate, as the site has been historically used for this purpose.

Within three months, all existing waste at the site has to be removed.

Equipment related to waste transfer operations also has to be removed within three months.

If WH Robinson do not comply with the orders, the firm can be prosecuted by Kirklees Council.

Dowker Street resident Dawn Hopkins said: "Residents are jubilant at the moment. We are really pleased.

"It will make a big difference to our lives. It is nice to let other people know that you can win sometimes.

"When you are going up against planning applications it can be daunting. This has dragged on so long, but we have stuck at it and won."

The site was a scrapyard for years, owned by Golcar Skip Hire.

But WH Robinson took over the site and began using it as a waste transfer station.

This meant skipsful of assorted waste being taken to the site.

Recyclable materials were separated out and sold and the rest of the items taken to landfill sites.

Residents said the way the site operated caused dust, dirt and noise and attracted vermin.

They also claimed traffic on George Street had increased from six lorries per day to about 70.

Although the waste transfer station licence for the site was valid, planning permission ran out in 1998.

The owners carried on operating - breaking planning law.

Kirklees Council issued an enforcement notice in October last year, ordering the firm to stop activities.

But the council delayed taking further action until a decision was made on a retrospective planning application submitted by WH Robinson for permission to operate the waste transfer station.

The company then appealed against the enforcement notice.

The public inquiry was eventually conducted by the Planning Inspectorate at the George Hotel in September.

The decision to dismiss the appeal and stop waste transfer activities was published on November 14.

WH Robinson can now only appeal by claiming the enforcement notice was incorrectly issued or that the Planning Inspectorate did not follow procedure correctly when making its decision.

The appeal would be heard in the High Court.

No-one from WH Robinson was available for comment.