AN ANDOVER Down site is proposing to expand the family business by removing agricultural poly-tunnels and replacing it with a modern commercial building.

Harewood Farm submitted its plans to Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) late November with the view to remove redundant agricultural poly-tunnels and a derelict garage, and replace it with a business storage and distribution building.

The family-run business first acquired the site 40 years ago, and was previously one of Europe’s largest turkey production sites at the time.

Site manager Mat Raymond said: “Obviously the site has evolved and our industry has changed. We’ve produced mushrooms and reared pigs but a lot of the buildings have passed their design life now and we need to try to make the site earn some money.

“We want to set ourselves up to be good value for an outside of town site.

“We did get planning permission for exactly what we asked for four and a half years ago, and we were successful, but I was not able to start it at the time so planning permission elapsed and we’re now renewing it.”

Harewood Farm currently has businesses occupying similar buildings on site including packaging company Seabird Packaging and removals business Russell’s Removals.

Some objections however have been made to the plans due to the increased traffic and impact on local residents.

Andover Town Council raised concerns over the traffic coming in and out of London Road which currently operates 50 miles per hour speed limit.

Its consultation comments read: “We recommend that a speed reduction should be imposed along this stretch of London Road, at least to 40 miles per hour.

“A footpath should be installed along London Road to allow workers to walk safely to and from work.”

One Andover Down resident also voiced questions over the noise and control of opening hours.

Resident Mark Thompson said: “The noise generated by these units and the workers using them have no consideration

for the residents of Andover Down. I have seen no accumulated noise report from the increase of units being built on this site.

“There does not seem to be any control of the opening hours of this site. I have seen units open late in the evening, weekends and bank holidays. Just one example of this is containers being dragged about at 0433hrs.”

The deadline for a decision on the plan is 15 January.

To view and comment on the plans go to testvalley.gov.uk/planning-and-building/viewplanningapplicationsonline and search using the reference 17/02971/FULLN.