Rother councillors have deferred plans to use part of a Bexhill car park as a council storage facility, in order to allow a consultation period to run its course.
On Thursday (October 10), Rother District Council’s planning committee had been due to consider an application seeking permission to install up to 42 storage containers at the Beeching Close Car Park.
The application, which had been recommended for approval, came from the council itself as part of plans to store food waste caddies ahead of national changes to waste collections.
As discussion began, however, planning committee chairman Brian Drayson raised concerns about the timing of the decision.
Cllr Drayson said: “The statutory consultation period ends tomorrow and I know of at least one group that intends on submitting an objection to this either today or tomorrow.
“I don’t see how we can discuss an application that the consultation period is still open on, so I was going to move for deferment to next month; much to the annoyance of I know part of the council, but I don’t see how we can discuss it when people are still able to object or support.”
The committee immediately voted on Cllr Drayson’s proposal, with a majority vote in favour of deferral. The application is now expected to be discussed at the planning committee’s next meeting in November.
When first submitted, the application had originally sought to use the entire site as storage facility. This would have effectively forced the closure of the currently free-to-use car park.
The plans were amended following objections from residents, with the updated proposals intending to retain 16 parking spaces on the site.
In all, the council had received 47 objections to the original proposals for the site. These objectors had argued the original proposals would have had an detrimental impact on nearby businesses due to the loss of the free parking.
At time of publication, no objections had been raised in connection with the amended plans.
Notably, in its original application, the council had said charges could be brought in for the car park if it is not used as a storage facility “due to rising costs of maintaining car parks and a need to increase revenue.” It is unclear at this stage whether the 16 remaining parking spaces will remain free-to-use, however.
The council says the 60-space car park is currently used by around 40 cars during the week and around 20 on weekends.
According to planning documents, the containers would be installed over several phases. The first phase would see 32 containers installed on the site sometime this autumn, which would be used to store food caddies ahead of national changes to waste collections.
A further set of containers would be installed on the site later in the year, which would be used for general storage of council property. The council says these containers would allow it to stop its current use of private storage facilities (some of which are outside the district), reducing costs and improving sustainability.
If approved, the site would be secured through palisade fencing. Drawings also appear to show a security kiosk on the site.
For further information on the proposals see application reference RR/2024/1423/P on the Rother District Council website.
