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Horsham District Council has given itself planning permission to build a £100,000 bin store close to a row of town centre shops.

The application for the 2.5m high, roofless brick structure, to be built in Park Place next to Piries Place Car Park, was given the nod by the planning committee on Tuesday (June 6).

It will house 12 bins for the use of residents of the adjoining flats at Burton’s Court.

Rubbish will be collected fortnightly, and the store will be managed by Southern Housing, which also manages the flats.

The application has been the source of much contention, with questions being asked about everything from the cost to where the store will be built.

A bin store used to sit inside the old car park before the site was demolished in 2018 – but nothing was included in the £8m rebuild.

So for the last couple of years, traders have put up with the smells and rubbish from the wheelie bins which have been set up at the end of Park Place.

The committee was told that the new store would provide ‘a much better solution than the current situation with the bins on the street’.

For the traders, though, that was hardly the point – they don’t want the bins there at all and would like to see the storage unit built inside the car park.

But the committee was told that this option had been ruled out as it would leave the council unable to get buildings insurance for the car park.

One councillor said: “It’s not an ideal situation [and] it’s not going to be an ideal situation because it wasn’t incorporated in the original plan.

“But after five years of having a couple of tin barriers outside for bins, we can’t go on like that forever.”

While the cost of the bin store was not a planning issue, it was raised by former councillor Peter Burgess, who suggested the scheme would cost the council some £150,000.

But Ruth Fletcher, cabinet member for local economy & place, said officers had assured her it would fall within the £100,000 budget.

Mrs Fletcher said she had ‘huge sympathy’ for residents and businesses but felt they would be ‘in a better position’ when the bin store was built.

Contentious Horsham bin store next to Piries Place Car Park is approved