Giant freezer bigger than a rugby pitch approved for Welsh village

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

A giant freezer larger than a rugby pitch is to be built in a Welsh village.

Castell Howell Foods will install the building, along with a forecourt and car park, at its site off Heol Parc Mawr in Cross Hands.

The company’s application for the frozen food storage facility has been unanimously approved by Carmarthenshire Council’s planning committee on the advice of planning officers.

A design and access statement on Castell Howell Foods’ behalf said the storage building, consisting of two linked chambers and some office space, would be 99m by 83m and just over 18m high.

“The biggest bottleneck to the further expansion of the business is the lack of storage available on site and in the reasonable vicinity,” it said. “Frozen storage facilities are at a premium in Wales with a general shortage of large-scale storage options available for rent or even purchase.”

Council planning officer John Thomas told the planning committee the frozen food unit would be “a considerably large building”, although set among other large buildings at the food park, and have around 115 parking spaces and a delivery forecourt.

No objections

There were no objections to the application, which a planning report said was referred to the committee because the council owned part of the land and had a financial interest in the scheme.

The report said Castell Howell Foods would plant trees at one of its farms to offset those that had either been cut down already or were earmarked for removal. In addition there will be some new planting onsite.

The report added the company has made financial contributions linked to a recent planning approval at the food park to mitigate for the loss of potential butterfly habitat and to create new marshy grassland meaning no further contributions were required.

A decision on the application had been delayed because of interim planning advice published by environment body Natural Resources Wales (NRW) last year following concerns about high levels of nutrients in a part of the nearby Carmarthen Bay special area of conservation.

Pollution

Castell Howell Foods has had to demonstrate the proposal won’t adversely impact this conservation area and has satisfied regulators that levels of polluting nitrates would in fact be reduced.

Cllr Ken Howell said it wasn’t clear to him how the company would manage nitrogen levels. Mr Thomas said surface water would be managed and nitrogen removed from it before being discharged.

Cllr Gareth Thomas said he was concerned foul drainage from the proposed development would be discharged to a nearby treatment works the report said was currently failing a “flow forward” target. He was worried about potential impacts on the River Gwili from Cross Hands to Hendy, which in his opinion “was one of the most polluted areas” around.

Mr Thomas said Welsh Water would complete a scheme of its own at the treatment works by December 31 this year to ensure the target was met and that a planning condition was proposed to prevent the frozen food storage building being operational prior to that date.

Cllr Thomas replied saying he felt quite happy that the Castell Howell Foods development should go ahead. It was seconded by Cllr Russell Sparks and backed by all of the committee in a vote.