A rubbish and recycling depot and solar farm was granted planning permission by councillors yesterday (Thursday 23 July).
Wealden District Council applied for permission to build the depot as part of a £20 million project at Knights Farm West after outgrowing its old Amberstone depot.
Recycling services have expanded, with councils now required by law to collect food waste as well as other recycling and general rubbish.
The council bought the 10-acre (4.2-hectare) plot about six years ago and also plans to build a new roundabout on the A267 to serve the depot and a new leisure centre opposite.
The council’s Majors Planning Committee granted the council planning permission for the project, with 30 bin lorries and 15 smaller street-cleaning vehicles due to be stored at the site where 60 people will work.
The scheme, at the Knights Farm Employment Park, in Lower Dicker, includes a ground-mounted photovoltaic solar panel array to power the depot.
The committee heard yesterday from the council’s planning agent, James Guthrie, of Quod. He said: “This (scheme) will deliver some very critical new public infrastructure for the council.
“It replaces the existing depot in Amberstone which dates back to the 1950s. The current facility is very constrained in terms of its size, layout and construction and it is no longer fit for purpose.”
He added: “The new facility will provide the operational space that has been deemed to be required to accommodate (a) new expanded fleet including new vehicles required to deliver new statutory services such as separate waste food collections.”
Planning officials recommended that councillors should approve the scheme although Arlington Parish Council was concerned that bin lorries could use Coldharbour Road as a cut-through. It said that this would be inappropriate for the road’s conditions.
The parish council also raised concerns around the scheme’s location, flood risk and potential effect on the landscape.
Council planning officials said that their recommendation followed an “extensive technical assessment in respect of highways, flood risk and drainage, landscape and visual impact, ecology, arboriculture, heritage, residential amenity and climate change.”
They said that the responsible authorities had raised no objections, subject to planning conditions and a “section 106” agreement to help fund the necessary changes to the road including the new roundabout.
Hellingly Parish Council, which represents the area where the depot would be built, had not objected.
The depot is expected to include a vehicle workshop, offices and crew facilities. These would cover a floorspace of more than 1,600 square metres and have a maximum ridge height of nine metres, a report said.
The plans also included hardstanding areas for waste lorries and a car park for staff and visitors.
The solar farm would be expected to cover an area of more than 4,200 square metres and to include battery storage.
Access to the site would be from the proposed roundabout, also serving the Wealden Community Sports Hub which is being built on the other side of the A267.
For more information, search for WD/2025/2402/MAJ on the Wealden District Council planning portal.
