A well-known waste management and skip hire firm has been operating unlawfully at its Swadlincote base, a new application has detailed.

In a complex "combined application" submitted to Derbyshire County Council, family firm Willshee's details how it is seeking to "regularise" its site in Swadlincote, after operating in "unauthorised" areas.

The firm aims to group together existing planning permissions with applications for new expansions and retrospective new applications (which it has already carried out) in order to settle the matter on the Swadlincote site off Keith Willshee Way, to the west of the A444, close to Stanton.

Without permission, the firm built 11 concrete bays, 15 HGV parking spaces and wider car parking, numerous new areas of concrete, a skip storage area and a dust extraction system, and built a weighbridge office and refuse-derived fuel storage, building on spots it was not given permission for.

It is now looking to resolve all of these discrepancies and bring the "reality of the site" in line with the plans it had previously submitted and is now submitting.

The firm is also now retrospectively asking to widen the boundary of the site itself, having already built on land without permission.

It is also looking to introduce a "flood compensation scheme".

Other parts of the site built without permission – an earth mound and a skip storage area – will be removed, the firm says.

All of this comes after South Derbyshire District Council, and particularly district councillors on the authority's planning committee, butted heads with Willshee's over a holiday lodge site owned by the family at Knights Lodges site in Knights Lane, Bretby.

This was because Willshee's had built a leisure complex and eight holiday lodges – half of the 16 lodges on the site – without permission.

The holiday lodges the site owners applied for, and were granted permission for, were supposed to be temporary units which could be removed from the countryside site, but what the owners built instead – without permission – were permanent installations.

These were eight larger permanent lodges, built out of breeze blocks and clad in timber, instead of being prefabricated pods placed onto a concrete base which could be removed.

Cllr Andrew Churchill, a district councillor, had said there was a "pattern of overt non-compliance" from the developer which risked "weakening the planning process at the district council".

Meanwhile, the latest application also comes as a long-debated plan for a £150 million incinerator on land just to the south of sewage treatment works, in woodland next to the town's £10 million Willshee's base, is still to be decided after nearly a year.

This incinerator would form part of a planned Swadlincote Resource Recovery Park, pitched by R&P Clean Power Limited.

The facility, which has generated significant opposition, would be capable of creating power for 36,000 homes and directing thousands of tonnes of waste away from landfill or other facilities in Europe.

Willshee's says in its combined application that its plans aim to support the Swadlincote Resource Recovery Park.

They say its combined application would enable its site to be used to its "full potential".

The new Willshee's plans would see HGV movements to and from the Swadlincote site capped at an average of 1,250 per week.

Its application says: "The retrospective development is designed to improve recycling efficiency, health and safety and product quality by creating concrete walled bays for the effective enclosure of wastes which reduce the risk of cross-contamination of products.

"The retrospective development will improve waste recycling operations at the site and enhance the efficiency of the waste transfer facility.

"The development will also mitigate impacts upon neighbours and enable the applicant to continue to grow their business whilst operating in an efficient and safe manner.

"The proposals represent a significant positive investment in the local area relating to the improvement of waste management infrastructure, clearly demonstrating the commitment of Willshee's Waste & Recycling Ltd and their desire to create a waste recycling facility fit for the 21st century to efficiently operate to efficient and modern standards, whilst mitigating potential impacts on nearby receptors.

"This development will enhance the efficiency and health and safety levels of the waste transfer station, improve recycling rates within the Swadlincote and Derbyshire area, and it will reduce the carbon footprint of recycling by reducing road transport.

"The development will improve the operations at a much-needed recycling facility in the area which complies with environment agency guidance, grows the business, and provides a safe and efficient workplace."

A decision will be made by the county council in the next few weeks.