Residents challenge “overpowering” Pilning warehouse approved under nineteen-fifties planning consent

Local TV

A twenty-five metre warehouse rising beside homes in Pilning has reignited debate about decades-old planning permissions, after residents and elected representatives said modern safeguards did not apply to the nineteen-fifty-seven consent used to build it.

Transcript

00:00For people living on the edge of Pilning, the scale of the new warehouse is impossible to miss.

00:06Resident Nikki Povey says the part-built structure now towers above nearby houses,

00:10blocking her son's bedroom views and, in her words, overpowering every building in the area.

00:14For many families, it has come as a shock, not only because of its height,

00:17but because they were never consulted before construction began.

00:20The developer, BGO Wire Propco Limited, is building the 25-metre facility

00:25using planning consent first granted in 1957 to the chemical company ICI.

00:31That permission was issued under what is known as an interim development order,

00:35a process that predates today's planning rules.

00:38Because of that, when a fresh application recently went before South Gloucestershire Council,

00:42councillors could only examine issues such as flooding or the layout of the design.

00:46They were not able to reconsider the principle or overall impact of the development.

00:51Claire Young, the Liberal Democrat MP for Thornberry and Yate,

00:53says the consent from the 1950s means a huge swath of land is allocated for warehousing

00:59without the modern conditions usually required.

01:02She's written to the developer asking for changes and is urging government

01:04to review historic interim development orders,

01:07arguing they limit the council's ability to act.

01:11Local councillor Simon Johnson says people accept there is a long history

01:14of commercial building in the area, which includes Amazon and Tesco distribution centres,

01:18but he believes this latest structure is different.

01:20He says residents are unhappy with its size and scale,

01:24describing the development as a missed opportunity to work with the community,

01:27as previous projects are done.

01:29For those living closest, the debate is not about opposing development altogether,

01:33but about regaining a sense of balance.

01:35Residents say they understand the need for warehouses,

01:38but they want planning rules that reflect modern expectations

01:40and protect the character of their community.

01:42Okay,

02:00you

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