An application seeking consent to store up to 49 tonnes of liquid petroleum gas at a site in Billingshurst has been approved.
The application for Four Seasons Fuel, in Coneyhurst Road, was considered by Horsham District Council’s planning committee on Tuesday (December 17).
The consent was needed because the two 14-tonne cylinders which would hold the fuel would take the amount stored at the site up to 49 tonnes. The threshold is 25 tonnes.
The cylinders are already on-site but do not yet have planning permission.
The council received 11 objections to the application, with concerns raised about fire safety risks – a fire at the depot in 2011 saw dozens of people evacuated from their homes.
But officers told the meeting that the Health & Safety Executive – which has to be consulted in such cases – had assessed the risks to the surrounding area’s population and found it to be ‘small’ with ‘no significant reasons’ on safety grounds to refuse consent.
Other concerns centred around the effect of smoke and noise on nearby residents, over-development of the site, and road safety.
The committee asked planning officers to take a look at the hours of operation at the site before signing off on the approval.
The application states that all activities including loading and unloading of service and delivery vehicles, will take place between 6am to 7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 5pm on Saturday.
But a suggestion was made that they should be restricted to between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturday.
It will be up to officers to decide if any such change is needed.
To view the application, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/24/0031.
