COUNCILLORS are being asked to give their opinions of plans to site a £3million abattoir on a business park - six days before a public inquiry begins.The first application by C & K Meats of Brome to create the abattoir in an existing warehouse at Eye Business Park was rejected by Mid Suffolk District Council last year.

By David Green

COUNCILLORS are being asked to give their opinions of plans to site a £3million abattoir on a business park - six days before a public inquiry begins.

The first application by C & K Meats of Brome to create the abattoir in an existing warehouse at Eye Business Park was rejected by Mid Suffolk District Council last year.

A second application, lodged 15 months ago and including plans for extensions, has never been voted upon.

This is because delays within the planning department led to an appeal being lodged with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and also a fresh application - to build the abattoir on a greenfield site at Yaxley.

The Eye Business Park site appeal starts next Tuesday but members of the area planning committee will be asked tomorrow what they would have decided if the application had proceeded.

A report from officers suggests they should have refused the scheme - on similar grounds to those used to reject the first application.

It claims the abattoir would be an “inappropriate development” for the business park because of the presence there of existing food businesses.

The report refers to refusal being in the interests of the “psychological welfare and amenity” of employees of the business park.

Philip Isbell, the council's principle planning officer, said that while additional environmental information had been provided in support of the second application, in the opinion of officers the development would be contrary to policy.

Councillors were being asked for their opinion prior to the start of next week's public inquiry.

Peter Ede, spokesman for a protest group opposing the Yaxley scheme, said there was a stark comparison between the officers' recommendations on the business park application and those in respect of the greenfield site.

“On Eye Airfield, where there is mains sewage and it is a brownfield industrial site, the district council seems to be taking a tough stance on the environmental position.

“By contrast, at Yaxley, there are no services and the site is in the middle of the countryside,” he said.

Chris Burrows, joint owner of C & K Meats, said he would be attending tomorrow's meeting to “see how they handle it”. “We're having no legal representation because I know what the outcome will be,” he said.

Mr Burrows said he was “quietly confident” of success in the appeal which is being held at the district council offices in Needham Market and is expected to last at least two days.

Large numbers of protestors and supporters are expected to attend.

david.green@eadt.co.uk