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Flintshire successful in having planning appeals dismissed

Published: 01/07/2021

Flintshire County Council has successfully defended two recent appeals against its decision to refuse planning permission for an extension of operational hours at a plant hire company near Mold

Thomas Plant Hire of Llwybr Hill, Caerwys had submitted two recent planning applications to Flintshire County Council  in order to regularise unauthorised activity at the site.  The agreed operating hours are  06:00 – 18:00 Monday to Saturday , with no operations at all on Sundays or Bank Holidays.

The site was previously the Sundawn Garden Centre and Teapot Café.  A planning application to change the use of the site was refused by Flintshire but was allowed on appeal by the Planning Inspector in 2016.  

Since that time, a series of complaints have been received following numerous breaches of the conditions imposed by the Planning Inspector.  Despite serving a Breach of Condition Notice in relation to a breach of the operational hours, the owners continue to operate outside the agreed hours and, in an attempt to regularise operations, submitted two separate applications to change the hours of operation.  

The first application proposed to change the hours of operation to 05:00-23:00 seven days a week, with vehicles required to enter and exit the site for urgent emergency works to public services outside of those hours. The second application proposed to enable vehicles to enter and exit the site only between 18:00 – 20:00 hours Mondays – Saturdays and at no time on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Both applications were refused by Flintshire and appeals subsequently made to the Planning Inspectorate.

In both cases, the Planning Inspector agreed with the Council’s decision and the appeals were dismissed – the first in January 2020 and most recently in May this year.

In the most recent decision, the inspector concluded:

“… concerns lead me to conclude that the resulting development would have potential to have a significant adverse effect upon the living conditions of the occupiers of neighbouring residential properties, having specific regard to levels of noise impact and general disturbances.”

Flintshire’s Cabinet Member for Planning, Envrionment and Economy, Councillor Christopher Bithell, said:

“Flintshire takes the views and concerns of residents seriously – not least when it comes to planning applications.  

“These successful decisions by the Planning Inspector shows that Flintshire was right to take the concerns of local residents on board and act accordingly.  It is imperative that we do all we can to ensure no-one is impacted by detrimental conditions which may affect their quality of life.

“This sends out a clear message that non-compliance with planning application conditions is completely unacceptable and that we will act when breaches occur.”