SO Recycle, which moved to the site of an old saw mill above Andover in late 2022, had been operating from the site while its applications to transform the site into a general industrial facility with weighbridges and an office block were pending.
The firm, which services a range of businesses including printers and print finishers across the south of England, employs around 20 staff.
The site’s original planning permission documents list its only lawful use as a sawmill; SO Recycling had sought to change that with its own planning application.
Registered on 14 July 2023, the application was rejected on 24 May 2024: the council noted an inadequate traffic assessment, the fact that the office block and weighbridges were in flood-risk zones, and that SO Recycle had failed to include any ecological assessment in its application.
The council’s notice said: “In the absence of an adequate transport assessment the Local Planning Authority cannot be satisfied that access arrangements associated with the development, given the volume and type of vehicular activity generated by the proposed uses, can be satisfactorily accommodated by the highway network.”
The council likewise cited the fact that the office block and weighbridges were sited in flood zones 2 and 3 – areas with up to 1% or 0.1% chance of flooding annually.
“Furthermore,” it said, “it has not been demonstrated that the siting of this development would not result in an increased risk of flooding at the site or elsewhere due to the loss of flood storage.”
Local residents had been up in arms about the recycling firm since its arrival, according to the Andover Advertiser, which reported that more than 100 letters of objection had been listed against SO Recycle’s retrospective application.
Speaking to the Advertiser prior to the application’s rejection, Penton Mewsey parish council chairman Kevin Briant said: "Huge HGVs are driving through our parishes on narrow winding lanes, through our conservation areas to the detriment of the resident’s wellbeing and damage to our roads and lanes.”
SO Recycle declined to comment.
