South Shropshire used car firm requests permission for former sawmill it has been using for two years

The owners of a used car sales business in Woofferton, near Ludlow, have applied for permission to change the use of part of the former sawmill on Station Road. 

The unit is part of a commercial complex previously known as The Old Sawmills and Timber Yard occupying former railway sidings on the edge of Woofferton, and has existing planning permission for the use of 'open timber storage'. 

But the site has already been used to sell and display used cars for more than two years.

Following intervention by Shropshire Council's planning enforcement team, the business owners are now seeking permission to "regularise" the development.

As part of the application, plans have also been revealed to re-arrange the layout of the unit "into a more efficient and safer environment", with the relocation of a portable office cabin to facilitate staff and visitor parking on site, including disabled parking.

The application states that the majority of car sales are conducted over the internet, meaning there have "only been around 10 to 15 traffic movements each way in and out of the site per day".

The application concludes: "The use as used car sales is a much cleaner operation and much less visually obtrusive as compared to its previously approved use of open timber storage with large vehicles offloading and loading raw timber trunks creating greater noise and dust than that of the current proposed operation on site of used car sales. 

"The existing and proposed use of the site has and will have a much reduced impact on neighbouring properties and the local environment, with no significant increase of traffic on or off the site."

Public consultation on the proposals closes on June 11. The full application is available to view on Shropshire Council's planning portal using reference number 25/01703/FUL.