PLANS to retain a recycling and salvage facility on a Warrington industrial estate have been rejected by town planners.
Sterling Metals Warrington, Unit 10d, Palatine Industrial Estate Causeway Avenue, Latchford, was seeking permission to retain a recycling and salvage facility with a storage and trade counter, with a full planning application for the flexible use of the unit.
But Warrington Borough Council has refused permission for development for the following reason(s):
1. The use of a formerly soft landscaped area as a storage yard for scrap metal has an unacceptably adverse impact on visual amenity. The material is also not stored in a controlled or enclosed area to the detriment of visual amenity and safe movements around the site. For these reasons the development conflicts with Policy QE7 of the Council’s Core Strategy or the Design and Construction SPD.
2. Insufficient information has been submitted regarding the movements required for the operation of the business between the two elements of the application site. As such it has not been demonstrated that the scheme does not adversely impact the movement of vehicles and the safety of pedestrians within the site and the development does not comply with Policies MP1 and MP3 of the Core Strategy.
Planners also said the proposal would not improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of the area nor does it comply with the development plan and therefore does not comprise sustainable development. There were no conditions which could reasonably have been imposed which could have made the development acceptable and it was therefore not possible to approve the application.
The building comprises a single-storey warehouse building that has historically (since circa 1980) been used for storage use, having been originally constructed for the purpose of steel fabrication. The unit itself occupies approximately 3000 sq ft (278 sqm) and is within the Palatine Industrial Estate accessed directly from Causeway Avenue. The site also consists of a small external area to the east used for storage purposes (approximately 2000 sq ft / 185 sqm), as indicated on the submitted site location plan.
The site is part of a larger row of warehouse units that is surrounded by a vehicle repair shop and boxing gym to the south, with other industrial uses to the west and a railway line to the north and east with residential uses further beyond. The immediate context is therefore entirely industrial.
In support of the application, it was stated the proposal seeks to secure the active use of the site for a range of industrial uses to ensure its continued use. Our client (Sterling Metals Ltd) wishes to use the unit for the recycling of non-ferrous metals including copper, brass and electric cabling. This involves the salvaging of precious metals and has a public-facing trade counter where local traders such as plumbers, electricians and roofers exchange materials.
The proposed uses will utilise the existing layout and form of the unit – for the avoidance of doubt, no physical works are proposed as part of this application which purely seeks to establish the flexible use of the unit. The proposal will ensure the unit can be lawfully occupied for recycling/salvaging use and provide an active commercial and economic use which can be used by the local trading community. The immediate area has a range of light industrial, and storage uses (which are considered to fall within the same use classes) and as such the proposed uses would be consummate with those already existing in the vicinity.
But planners have rejected the application.
