PLANS for a much-needed waste reclamation centre at Aston Road is in the pipeline -- the Advertiser Messenger can exclusively reveal.

Presently, the only local facility at Money Lane, in Romsley, becomes very congested at peak times, serving as it does part of the southern Black Country as well as the Bromsgrove area.

The Advertiser/Messenger has learned Bromsgrove District Council, behind closed doors, has taken the decision to accept an offer of £145,000 from Severn Waste for a plot of land it owns in Aston Road. The authority had other offers of £70,000 and £85,000.

Previously, the leader of the Labour group on the district council, Cllr Peter McDonald (Uffdown and Waseley) claimed another buyer was interested and that it should have gone out to tender.

His subsequent plea to the council's auditors for an investigation was refused.

But a hard-hitting confidential report by the council's district secretary Bob Lewis into the matter slams Cllr McDonald.

He says Cllr McDonald provides no evidence to substantiate his claims and is ignorant of the law in asserting the council has acted in breach of its statutory duty to get the best price.

Cllr McDonald said making the matter public had raised the price by 40 per cent.

"If it were to go out to tender, we would see a further increase," he said. Council leader Cllr Nick Psirides (Con, Norton) said he could not comment on a confidential report.