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Gloucestershire Business News

EXCLUSIVE: Planners raise a saw point with timber yard

A timber business near Nailsworth is urging planners to rubber stamp operations which it claimed first started in 2009.

Sawn hard and softwood merchants Traba Timber, based on Tinkley Lane, which is between Nailsworth and Nympsfield, has enlisted Acre planning consultants to regularise B2 (business use) at the site, which is owned by Michael Hair.

Planners at Stroud District Council have told the applicant that the business needs a lawful development certificate if it is to continue at the isolated rural location.

Back in 2008, SDC issued permission for the erection of a building at the address for general agricultural use, but planners have now taken issue with the site's current non-agricultural use, where Traba constructs and erects sheds before shipping them.

Acre consultant Tim Brookman has stepped in to prove that ongoing use of the current business dates back to a point which makes the activity exempt from enforcement action. For that purpose, a series of timestamped aerial perspectives from Google underline claims that the timber work dates back to beyond the 10-year time frame within which planning can take action.

Mr Brookman told SDC: "The evidence submitted relating to the use of the land and buildings, along with the application made under Section 191 of the Act, demonstrates that on the balance of probabilities, the agricultural land at Tinkley Lodge has been used for B2 purposes for more than 10 years before the date of submission. There is no evidence to the contrary."

He added the business is subsequently "deemed lawful and exempt from enforcement action".

The submission continued: "It is understood from the applicant that the site was purchased in 2008 and an existing timber business was moved to the site. Planning permission was sought and then approved for a new building with this erected erected in early/mid 2009."

In a separate statement for the request, Mr Hair told planners he had moved the work there from a nearby site on Tinkley Lane after he bought Tinkley Lodge in 2008.

He said: "As the business has grown, the size and complexity of projects have increased." 

The aerial images, he added, demonstrated use of the land as such for more than a decade.

Another neighbour, at Easter Park Cottages, attested to the claims and said that the site had been "used as a timberyard for the production of timber frame buildings since at least July 2013".

● Nympsfield Parish Council has been asked for its views on the application and given until November 13 to respond.

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