The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Call for planning meeting to be held closer to site
Campaigners opposed to a wood processing company's plans to retain its operations in Whittlesey are calling on planning chiefs to decide the issue at a meeting in the town.
Protesters want Fenland District Council, based in March, to allow its planning committee to meet in Whittlesey. This is for when councillors consider AW Jenkinson’s retrospective planning application for its wood recycling business to go on operating at the former Saxon brickworks offPeterboroughRoadinWhittlesey.
They say the issue is a worry for many residents and it is only right that a decision should be made at a venue that is easily accessible to as many people as possible.
A date has still to be set for a meeting to take place unless council officers use delegated powers to refuse the application.
Whittlesey councillor, Chris Boden, leader of Fenland District Council, said: “I have asked for a special meeting of the planning committee to be held in Whittlesey so that asmanypeopleaspossiblecan attend to hear it.
“This plan is a matter of concern to a lot of people in Whittlesey.”
Among the main objections residents have are, what they say, are the “dust, smells, noise” that come from the site.
Recently, an air quality monitoring system was installed near a Whittlesey school to monitor output from the wood processing site. The timber specialists moved to the former brickworks in early 2021 and submitted the retrospective application last September following a visit to the site by council officers on April 21 last year.