A bid to extend the operating hours of a rural concrete processing plant has been refused by Wealden planners.
On Thursday (January 18), Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee North considered an application connected to a concrete processing plant at the Squires Farm Industrial Estate, near Palehouse Common.
The facility was granted planning permission last year (as part of a retrospective application), but committee members at the time chose to significantly limit its hours of operation over concerns about disturbance to neighbours.
Permission was being sought to amend these hours, allowing the business to start earlier and finish later in the day.
While recommended for approval, this request was given short shrift by committee members.
Cllr Andrew Wilson (Lib Dem) said: “The site is right next door to a bunch of houses; it is literally right next door to them and I am mindful to the amenity of those residents having an industrial unit operating for extended hours there.
“We gave a number of reasons [for the operating hours] back in October and … they are unchanged in my view.
“The two representatives who spoke against the application today … are obviously being impacted … so I would add their amenity and enjoyment of their property to [those reasons].
“The gentleman who spoke in favour of the application said the operators of the site — who I note are not here — want to commence at 7.30am. Unfortunately, as Mick Jagger said, we can’t always get what we want.”
When the first application was considered in October last year, the business had been seeking operating hours of between 6.30am and 6.30pm on Mondays to Fridays and from 6.30am to 4pm on Saturdays.
Council officers had been in favour of a later start, however, with their recommended condition requiring operations to begin at 7am rather than the 6.30am sought by applicants.
But committee members felt these hours of operation would be too disruptive, so chose to impose much more restrictive condition. This meant the site could only operate between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.
The committee’s condition was also more restrictive in another way, as it included staff arrivals to the site, not just deliveries and the operation of machinery.
