Objections to Rotherham plant nursery improvement plans over antisocial behaviour and noise

Applicants Carrier Landscapes Ltd hopes to widen the existing access to a 12ha site off Worksop Road, Lindrick, provide new tracks on the site and erect a water tank and a building to house borehole equipment.

The site is currently used to grow trees and bushes for use on large sites such as housing developments and crematoriums, and the applicants say the proposals will ‘provide a safer, easier and quicker route to the barn instead of the existing narrow and winding track, which hugs the cliff edge’.

Documents state that there is a ‘dispute of the ownership of this track’, and the proposal ‘will remove this concern’.

The proposed 54m borehole will be used to draw water and irrigate the commercially grown flora on site, along with a cylindrical water tank.

A report by Rotherham Council planning officers says that before the land and building were bought by the applicant, the site was being used for ‘drug taking and storage of stolen goods’.

The applicant states that since they have taken over the site they have cleaned it up and used it to grow trees, shrubs, and plants, and the scheme will improve the current use of growing flora, mainly trees.

However, 16 residents have objected to the plans, plus Conservative MP for Rother Valley Alexander Stafford and a councillor.

Objectors say that visibility from the site onto the A57 is ‘obscured by parked vehicles in layby and by bus when parked at the bus stop to the east of the entrance’.

They also raise concerns about floodlights, visual and environmental impact, and ‘antisocial behaviour from people parked at the entrance’.

Councillor Tracey Wilson, who represents the Anston & Woodsetts ward on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC), wrote that ‘it is not clear that the applicant owns all the land within the application site, and a right of way has been blocked’.

She added that ‘large vehicles [are] entering and exiting the site at unreasonable hours which is causing noise and general disturbance’.

The officer’s report states that the works would ‘not have a significant material impact on the openness of the Green Belt’, and that a condition is recommended to limit the times when vehicles can use the site, in a bid to reduce noise impact on residents.

Officers add that lighting would be required to be angled to not disturb residents, and the applicant has agreed to relocate an access track away from residents.

The report adds that ‘satisfactory access can be achieved in line with recognised standards and prevailing conditions, in particular regarding visibility which was a concern originally raised by the Council’s Transportation Service.

‘It is considered that Rotherham Borough Council should now be satisfied that the required visibility is achievable from the widened site access’

Officers have recommended the scheme for approval at the next planning board meeting on December 14.