Residents have claimed an aggregate bagging depot on a narrow country lane which has been launched without planning consent is “an accident waiting to happen”.
However, in a report to a meeting of Hambleton District Council’s planning committee on Thursday, planning officers have recommended approval of Greenford Haulage’s retrospective application to transform a former potato store on a narrow lane near Dalton on Tees.
The report states the site, where a mixed fleet of tippers, heavy goods and bagged aggregate vehicles are being operated, opens directly onto a 90 degree bend on West Lane, an unclassified and narrow winding country road with a bridge over the East Coast Rail Line.
The business is operating with tippers leaving the site from about 5am, typically destined for a quarry to collect material for delivery to customers, either locally or further afield.
Later in the day, trucks loaded with aggregates from local quarries return to the applicant’s yard for the bagging plant.
Bagged aggregate vehicles take the bagged material produced at the plant to builder’s merchants throughout the North East and Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire County Council’s highways department said as West Lane has a centre line – and national standards state that a centre line cannot be applied to a road narrower than 5.5m – it is sufficient for two HGVs to pass comfortably.
Highways officers said there are also a number of other land uses along the lane, including several farms, Croft Circuit, a garden centre, a timber supplier and other light industrial uses, that we would generate HGV traffic, but there had been no injury collisions there recently to suggest there is a road safety issue.
Despite this, in letters of objection to the scheme three parish councils and numerous residents said the access to the business ” very sharp double blind bend” poses a risk to road users and the bagging plant represents a major change of use from when it was a potato store.
They said the plant’s 40-tonne wagons are unable to turn into West Lane without swinging right onto the wrong side of the road and cutting across the verges on each side of the road.
A Dalton On Tees Parish Council spokesman said: “This leaves mud all over the road which makes the surface extremely slippery and dangerous for road users. There have been numerous near misses when oncoming vehicles have come round the corner only to be faced with a large wagon on the wrong side of the road. It is simply an accident waiting to happen.”
In a letter of objection a resident added: “Given that this distribution site is supplying businesses and building sites throughout the North East then a location closer to the A1 and A66 would be far preferable to this site in the middle of nowhere.”
Nevertheless, planning officers highlight how the site was once used by STC Plastics for manufacturing and “has a long history of vehicle movements to and from the site”.
Recommending the scheme be granted, the report stated: “Geographically the site is well located with good transport links to the A1 and A66.
“It is considered that the access to the site is acceptable from a highway perspective and is not considered to result in a severe impact on highway safety.”
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