ONE rubbish truck every three minutes could serve a planned Newport incinerator at its busiest periods – on a road planned to reduce M4 traffic.

That’s according to Veolia, which is proposing the scheme for Llanwern Steelworks, and said that at peak times, 21 vehicles an hour would serve the site.

Tory South Wales East AM William Graham said the plan would reduce the benefit a planned upgrade to Queensway Road – which would be used by the trucks – would have for the M4.

It is hoped the road, once upgraded by the Welsh Government, will reduce the strain on the motorway, connecting with the Southern Distributor Road.

Veolia is proposing the incinerator for a 25-year contract worth £1.1billion from a consortium of five South Wales councils, dubbed Prosiect Gwyrdd.

Veolia said, in its application for planning permission to Newport council, that “at peak,” 21 waste deliveries would be made an hour, equivalent to “just over” one truck every three minutes arriving and departing.

This would take place outside of “network peak hours,” it claimed, adding that on average, seven trucks would arrive an hour, equivalent to one every nine minutes arriving and leaving.

A Veolia spokeswoman said the lorries would not impose a “burden on the surrounding highway network,”

as the new road would cater for future predicted traffic.

Mr Graham said the fact that the Queensway project was intended as a relief to the M4 needed to be taken into account.

“The projected traffic movements will absorb all the benefits of the improvements to Queensway,” he said.

Welsh Green Party leader Pippa Bartolloti said: “My concern is first of all the pollution from this numberof vehicles and for the health of the 4,000 residents of the new Llanwern settlement.”

Newport planning committee is expected to consider the application later this year, while Prosiect Gwyrdd will decide whether the Newport plan or one in Cardiff gets the contract this autumn.