Plans to demolish buildings at a former highways depot have been approved by Rother councillors.
The site will become a base for the lorries used for weekly food waste collections as part of a £2 million project.
On Thursday (17 April), Rother District Council’s planning committee considered the plans for the former Sidley highways depot in Elva Way, Bexhill.
The proposals were submitted by the council itself and sought to use permitted development rights to demolish five buildings which are currently on the site.
Such an application would not normally be considered by a committee but went before councillors because the council was the applicant.
Conservative councillor John Barnes said: “I am really rather surprised to see this in front of us as it is clearly permitted development rights and therefore no planning (permission) is required.
“I realise we are trying to be very sensitive as we are the applicant but really we are setting a slightly dangerous precedent. Something which is permitted development rights is no business of this committee.”
In response, officials clarified that they were unable to make a decision on the scheme because they had no delegated authority to determine applications which were either submitted by the council or involved council-owned land.
The committee then resolved that the demolition of buildings would constitute permitted development and could go ahead because they did not require prior approval to continue.
The demolition forms part of plans to begin using the site as a vehicle depot to support the delivery of the waste collections and street cleansing service.
This use will include the parking, cleaning and maintenance of refuse collection vehicles.
While Rother District Council is the applicant, the site is owned by East Sussex County Council. Rother District Council had initially been expected to buy the land outright as part of these plans.
But now Rother intends to rent the site instead. It is expected to then sublet the site to Biffa, the waste contractor for Rother, Hastings and Wealden councils.
The change in approach was agreed by Councillor Nick Bennett, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for resources and climate change, in March.
At the time, Councillor Bennett heard how the purchase plans had been reassessed in light of contamination being found on the site.
County council officials at the time said that the district council intended to put the money that it would have used to buy the land towards the costs of contamination clearance and development works instead.
After a recommendation from officials, Councillor Bennett agreed to enter into a 10-year lease agreement with the district council.
For further information, see application reference RR/2025/347/DN on the Rother District Council website.
