Residents object to Chesterfield scrapyard plans

A planning application has been submitted seeking permission for the scrapyard in New Whittington.

Chesterfield Motor Spares is behind the change-of-use application for Unit 10, Whittington Engineering Complex, South Street North.

In the application, agent Louisa Chadburn, on behalf of applicant Lukasz Gawrych, of Chester Street, Chesterfield, said: “The unit is currently empty and was to be looked at being used for storage.

“However, now it is be used for end-of-life vehicles.”

The application had been submitted to Chesterfield Borough Council, but has now been withdrawn ahead of a resubmission to Derbyshire County Council, which has responsbility for such developments.

However, nearby residents have already raised objections to the plan.

One said they opposed the scheme due to “the potential fire risk, also drug dens” and “the infestation of rats and mice”, while others objected on the grounds of the “increased noise, pollution and traffic”.

However, in a letter to accompany the application, Mr Gawrych moved to reassure worried residents, saying it would not be a typical scrapyard, but rather a building to dismantle vehicles for spares – for which they need a scrap metal dealers’ licence – before the vehicles are taken to be crushed elsewhere.

He said: “We are not proposing that the unit is used as a typical scrapyard.

“The only traffic we expect on site is the delivery of vehicles, which we already take on a daily basis and the waste carriers to take any liquid waste from the site to the authorised site to be disposed off.”