Shropshire Star

Ludlow petrol station plans recommended for approval

Councillors will be asked to back plans for a petrol station to put fuel tanks underground after the environment agency withdrew its concerns.

Published

The dispute over plans for the new £2.5 million filling station for Ludlow – which would be only the town's second – has centred around whether the fuel tanks were placed above or below the water table.

Placing the tanks underground would allow the developer to add more parking spaces to the scheme, which includes a 3,000 square foot convenience store.

The move has been opposed over concerns about the possibility of the tanks leaking and polluting the water table.

However, the Environment Agency has now withdrawn its opposition to the tanks being placed underground, with planning officers recommending that councillors approve an application seeking to vary the conditions of the previous planning permission.

The filling station was approved in May 2015 but the project has been beset by delays.

The proposed station and an accompanying 3,000 square foot convenience store is to be run by Applegreen and is expected to create about 20 jobs.

A report prepared for next week's meeting of Shropshire Council's south planning committee says: "The original design involved the provision of underground fuel storage tanks but this was amended to involve partially submerged storage tanks instead.

"This was in order to resolve objections from the Environment Agency. The current variation application seeks to re-introduce underground storage tanks at the site, with additional parking provision above. The application has been put forward following further discussions between the applicant and the Environment Agency."

A decision on the application will be taken by the members of the council's South Planning Committee next week, after local councillor Andy Boddington requested that a decision on the plans is taken by members and not officers.

Councillor Boddington said: "This site is at a very sensitive location on the edge of a floodplain. The original proposal, approved by the South Planning Committee in May 2015, had fuel storage tanks that were mostly above ground. I do not believe that the committee would have approved the application with below ground storage tanks."

He added: "I do not believe that any proposal for underground petrol storage will be acceptable on this site."

The application has also attracted an objection from Friends of the Corve and Teme – Ludlow’s Flood Action Group.

The council report says that mitigation measures are enough to recommend approving the variation.

It states: "Whilst the concerns of objectors regarding pollution of the River Teme and groundwater are noted the EA is the relevant technical consultee for pollution matters and has concluded that the proposal to underground the fuel storage tanks can be accepted. This is given the significant measures which have been put forward to protect groundwater including a double-skinned tank with leak detection and also the evidence put forward regarding pollution pathways in the applicant’s pollution risk assessment."