Wetherby petrol station plans approved despite residents complaints it will cause 'significant light and noise pollution'

Woodman Forecourts will develop and manage a slice of land off Privas Way in the town, despite 50 objections from local people and opposition from Wetherby Town Council. The company had a previous application for the same site rejected by city planners in 2019.

That decision was upheld by the government’s Planning Inspectorate on appeal, but only on the grounds that there was no biodiversity net gain from the plans.

As a result, the developer submitted a similar application, alongside a pledge to cultivate a small plot of agricultural land just over a mile away.

At a council planning meeting on Thursday, a neighbour, whose name was given only as Joanna, said she feared “significant light and noise pollution, particularly around the time children are going to bed and in the summer when the windows are open”.

She added: “If this was necessary for the town I’d be less strong in my objections, but as we already have three petrol stations in the town I don’t feel this is necessary.”

But representing the developers, Nazia Shah warned councillors that a “refusal at this stage wouldn’t stand a chance of being upheld on appeal,” because the biodiversity issue had now been addressed. She added: “There’s no reason why the scheme can’t be accepted today.”

However, Ms Shah admitted the developers hadn’t consulted with neighbours of the site during the application process, but insisted this was not required of them.

Pressed repeatedly by frustrated councillors on whether this was good practice, she simply answered, “There was no requirement to do so.”

Councillor Dan Cohen suggested the site in its current grassland form was helping the local environment. He said it was an example of how biodiversity on similar sites across Leeds has been allowed to flourish.

He told the meeting: “It seems bizarre to me that of all the things we’d seek to shove onto an area, which is precisely that which we seek to protect everywhere else, is something that would encourage more cars. I don’t understand how we are squeezing that square peg into this particular round hole.”

Coun Cohen said the land the developers want to cultivate two kilometres away was “doing a perfectly good job contributing to biodiversity anyway,” as it is ripe for food production and sits next to woodland.

Council planning officer David Newberry told councillors he had “sympathy” for their scepticism over the plans, but suggested they had little choice but to approve it.

He said that though the council had won the appeal over the last application, it had “lost” the argument it had made that the principle of the development was wrong.

He said: “It’s one of those circumstances where as officers we don’t like the development. We know we don’t like it because we rejected in 2019. Although we don’t like what the inspector told us, we’re stuck with what the inspector told us.

“That’s the uncomfortable position we’re all in. It’s a matter of public record we don’t like this development, but we are where we are.”

Councillors duly voted in favour of the plans, by a majority verdict.