Copart car wreck depot seeking to extend hours...again

Fresh application for Greenham site faces barrage of objection

A SECOND attempt to extend the opening hours of a controversial car wreck depot in Greenham – the first having already been turned down in November – has attracted a barrage of objections from local residents.

International car auctioneer Copart UK was first given the green light to house more than 4,000 accident-damaged vehicles for online auction last May.

West Berkshire Council imposed a number of conditions, including a limit on its hours of operation, which led the American firm to launch a failed bid to relax the condition to extend its hours and allow for Saturday working 15 times each year.

The fresh application submitted recently seeks again to vary condition 17 and extend opening hours by a further two hours on weekdays and allow for operations on 15 Saturdays each year, the same variation which was already blocked by the council last year.

The car auctioneer is this time seeking to also vary condition 16 governing adequate lighting for the proposed area, to reflect the increased number of hours that the applicant has applied to operate under.

The second application has since attracted 14 letters of objection from residents, repeating their original calls that extending the hours would cause an “unacceptable” impact on their amenity.

One Greenham resident, Ian Bridger, called the application “madness”.

He said: “Not only is this just a re-submission of previous applications that have already been refused, but the grounds have not changed.

“This is a quiet rural area neighbouring an industrial area.

“The question of whether those businesses should be allowed to work with heavy machinery and produce very loud noise pollution is always ‘no’, but overnight especially so.

“As residents of this area, we object to this application strongly, on the grounds that it impacts our calm and wellbeing, our amenity and happiness.”

Another local resident, Mrs Bartlett, said: “I am extremely concerned about the noise pollution that this operation will create for local residents.

“We live in close proximity to the site and I am very worried about the disruption this will cause to our peaceful country community – noise, light and increased vehicle movements.”

The South Greenham Residents’ Association also issued a letter of objection, citing noise and the impact on local amenity as the chief concerns for local residents.

Former chairman of Greenham Parish Council, Tony Forward, said: “The applicant should be told to go away and re-present the information correctly before any decision is made.

“We are confident West Berkshire Council officers will not be persuaded to interpret policy in the flawed way the applicant would want them to.

“There is ample evidence, especially from Environmental Health, to show the impact on the residents will be to harm their amenity from the approved application as it stands, so approving these extending hours must be totally unacceptable.”

West Berkshire Council will determine the application at a later date, while a simultaneous appeal to the Planning Inspectorate made by Copart UK against the original refusal in November remains under consideration.