Ten-year extension for industrial site at Curdworth

The KSD Recycled Aggregates site, in Lichfield Road, had been due to close at the end of last year but members of Warwickshire County Council’s regulatory committee agreed at a meeting on Tuesday to grant temporary planning permission which would run until the end of 2031.

The matter had been brought to committee due to an objection by Lea Marston Parish Council but councillors were told that this was withdrawn on the eve of the meeting prompting Cllr Jill Simpson-Vince (Con, Brownsover and Coton Park) to propose approval.

She said: “This doesn’t have any objections which is unusual, normally we have a whole raft of them with something like this which actually does say something about the owners and how the site is run.

“We normally get complaints about wheel-washing, mud on the roads, noise disruption and the rest of it but we don’t have that with this one. There are issues around the landscaping but if you know you are going to be putting in another application and you are already talking to planning then it’s not unreasonable to expect that that’s not been done.”

Earlier in the meeting, planning agent Ian Briggs had explained why the agreed landscaping on part of the site - which is on green belt land sandwiched between the M42 and the HS2 route - had not been carried out.

He said: “The original northern bund was planted up - there are trees on there but it’s not been 100 per cent successful.

“The planting that wasn’t done was for the northern extension. Permission went through in about 2017 and there was a period when nothing happened on site and the permission wasn’t implemented. Covid then came along and that distracted everyone and they were also staring down the barrel of this permission expiring - potentially we would have planted a load of trees and then in two to three years they would have had to be ripped out if planning permission was refused.”

Planning officer Sally Panayi explained to the meeting that the planting approved for the northern extension was for 1,000 trees and shrubs and that if the latest plans were approved, a new condition would insist on further planting along the site’s eastern boundary.

She added that the parish council had decided to withdraw their objection due to the willingness of the applicant to take part in talks and, also, that it was a temporary application.

Reading from a letter sent in by the parish council, she said: “The council looks forward to opportunities to work in partnership with KSD to protect and enhance the ecology, school curriculum and adult education services which are provided at Hams Hall education centre.”

Councillors then voted unanimously in favour of granting the ten-year temporary permission.