Waste wood appeal for site near Framfield withdrawn

On Wednesday (April 13), officers told East Sussex County Council’s planning committee councillors that an appeal surrounding a bid by Holley Woodshavings to open a wood recycling facility at its premises within the Squires Farm Industrial Park had been withdrawn.

The appeal had been underway for some time, following the council’s refusal of the original application in February 2020. 

Sarah Iles, a monitoring and enforcement officer, said: “The operator appealed against the refusal of planning permission. We were due to have an [appeal] hearing here at County Hall last October.

“The afternoon before the hearing, the appellant actually withdrew the appeal, so that didn’t take place.  

“We have subsequently monitored the site and the unauthorised waste use has stopped, so there is now no current action for us to do on that site.”

The proposals had originally been brought forward by Holleys as a way of clearing more than 1,000 tonnes of waste wood from its site, which was left there following an ill-fated third-party venture several years prior. 

While the third party was prosecuted by the Environment Agency for not complying with a Waste Removal Notice, the court made no requirement for the persons involved to facilitate the removal of the waste wood. 

This left Holley Woodshavings in possession of the wood and (following a county council enforcement notice) responsible for disposing of it. 

The proposed facility, which had been in operation prior to the refusal, involved this waste wood being processed into a material for export and later use as animal bedding, chipboard and fuel for biomass plants.

This process required new waste wood to be delivered to the site, but had resulted in a significant amount of the dumped wood being recycled and removed.