No to firm’s bid for longer working hours

A Gedney Hill company has been told it can’t increase its hours of operation amid claims from neighbours that it is already flouting planning conditions.

You Garden which is based in Long Lane had applied to South Holland District Council to extend its opening hours from 6am to 10pm on Mondays and Fridays and 7am to 8pm on Saturdays and Sundays between March 1 and June 30.

When permission was granted for the site in 2017 a condition was that hours were to be between 7am and 8pm on weekdays and until 6pm at weekends.

But a meeting of South Holland District Council’s planning committee heard allegations the company was not meeting that and other planning conditions.

Speaking against the application nearby resident Jane Thompson claimed that she’d counted 1,130 vehicle movements from the site in one week when planning conditions should limit them to 170.

“When You Garden took over Kingfisher Nursery in 2017 concerns were raised by the planning committee over the intensification of the site including its impact on local residents,” she told the committee. “All local residents have been witness to You Garden exploiting their planning restrictions. These issues have been ongoing since April 2018. Meetings have been held but all to no avail.

“The activities of this company are having a huge impact on the local residents. It’s great that You Garden are benefiting from the pandemic by increasing their sales but it surely should not continue to do so by what is clearly a distribution centre masquerading as a nursery in a rural area.

“Their current location is not conducive to country living.”

David Brown said that the company, which employs 125 people across two sites, is rapidly expanding.

“Long Lane is a critical part of our infrastructure with a growing plant stock and our packing operations,” he said in support of the application. “We’ve requested this extension to our current working relations to just manage our seasonal spring peak.

“This is only for March to June and we’ll only use it if we need to.

“We’ve listened to local objections and have looked to reduce the hours of HGV vehicle activity to less than we applied for.”

Members of the committee initially looked to defer a decision on the application but that was voted down.

Instead the majority decided to refuse it outright going against planning officer recommendations to grant the application but on a 12-month basis.

Coun Peter Coupland said: “It appears that many complaints relate to abuse of planning permissions already on the site and that’s worrying for what’s gone on and might go on in the future.

“The planning department are well aware of these issues and I’ve been informed planning enforcement have been involved somewhere down the line.

“None of us on this committee want to hold back business expansion, but should this be at the continued expense of this particular location to the nearby residents and detrimentally affecting their day-to-day living environment? I’d say probably not.”