Councillors Approve Warehouse Plans

An animal feed business has secured planning permission to create a new warehouse near Mayfield.

On Thursday (June 19), Wealden District Council’s newly-formed Majors Planning Committee approved an application from Windmill Feeds connected with the former House of Plants site in Wellbrook Hill.

The application sought permission to demolish polytunnels associated with the former business and to build a new warehouse and storage building in its place.

The committee heard further details about how the site would operate from Robert Hook, one of the directors of Windmill Feeds.

Mr Hook said:

“We are a local animal feed and bedding retailer, supplying the farming, equestrian and rural sector with four retail outlets at: Crowborough; Cross-in-Hand; Uckfield; and East Peckham.

“We currently have a warehouse located at Blackboys a few miles on from the application site, further along the A267. Our lease is coming to an end, hence the need to find a replacement warehouse site.

“Why have we chosen this site? We need a warehouse site that is central to our four stores, thus minimising delivery times and distances.”

Mr Hook said the operations would only involve a single HGV making deliveries each day. 

He also stressed how the warehouse would not itself have a retail outlet, so the HGV traffic would not be mixed with customers on the site.

While recommended for approval, the scheme had seen objections raised by Mayfield and Five Ashes Parish Council and several local residents, primarily due to concerns around highway safety.

During the meeting, Cllr Joel Marlow, chairman of Mayfield and Five Ashes Parish Council’s community safety and traffic committee said: 

“The proposal brings no local benefit at all. There are no confirmed local jobs, no services for residents and no meaningful economic value.

“What it does bring is increased risk: to road safety; to the environment; and to the rural character of this area of outstanding natural beauty.”

He added: 

“Wellbrook Hill is now included in the East Sussex speed management programme, because both Wealden and East Sussex Highways have formally recognised it as a dangerous stretch of road.

“Why would we choose to add further risk to a road already known to be unsafe?”

For their part, Wealden planning officers highlighted how East Sussex Highways had not raised any objections to the proposals, as a result of amendments and conditions.

While several committee members said they remained concerned about road safety, councillors also highlighted how a refusal on highways grounds would be unlikely to hold up if taken to appeal.

Cllr Greg Collins (Green) said: 

“I absolutely get that the situation — in relation to the use of the road, the traffic the road carries, the perception of the lack of safety, particularly further down the road at the junction of the A272 — is something that preys on everybody’s mind

“But we’ve got a report from [East Sussex] Highways, which essentially says ‘with the conditions that you’ve applied; crack on’. If we refuse it, it will go to appeal and we will get laughed at by the planning inspector.”

He added: 

“I wouldn’t vote for it enthusiastically, but I can’t see any way that I could say no. It would be unreasonable.”

The majority of the committee opted to approve the proposals with a caveat requiring Wealden officers to check the measurements presented in the East Sussex Highways. 

If these figures were to prove inaccurate the scheme would be brought back for further consideration by the committee.

For further information see application reference WD/2023/2728/MAJ on the Wealden District Council website.