A lorry depot which would have run round the clock and seen nearly 300 daily journeys by heavy goods vehicles in Great Hallingbury has been blocked by the local council.

The planning committee at Uttlesford District Council voted today (February 8) to refuse plans by FKY Limited for a logistics facility for local firm Wren Kitchens, which residents feared would be the "death knell" for the village of Great Hallingbury.

Council officers had recommended the scheme be approved, warning a major local employer would be forced to leave the district once the lease on its current Stansted Airport site comes to an end.

A similar application at the site was also voted down by the committee last year, according to a report.

Speaking for Wren Kitchens at a planning meeting, Stephen Parnaby said all the issues from the previous application had been addressed and the plans now had no objections from statuary consultees such as Essex Highways as a result.

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He said: "We will work with the local community. We’ll do our best for this area, and to be a credit to the area and the local community."

He also said the facility would have acoustic screening and tree planting to protect residents and committed to a £40,000 contribution to the Flitch Way.

According to the application documents, Wren Kitchens has actively been looking for a suitable site in the district for the last three years.

The Tilekiln Green site would have been used to decant storage containers between vehicles and would have had enough parking for 80 heavy goods vehicles and 107 lorries and cars.

Over 200 objections to the scheme were submitted ahead of this morning’s planning meeting, raising concerns it would permanently remove a piece of local countryside and worsen traffic coming on and off the nearby M11 motorway.

Scores of local residents also turned up to the meeting to express their concerns.

One, Roger Keys, said: "We will be forced to live next to a concrete jungle. My fear is that if this proposal is granted, it will be the death knell for a village that has been in existence for over 1,200 years."

Allegations were also made by residents that ecology reports had been made after trees had already been cut down in the site, which is a priority habitat and area of deciduous woodland.

Councillor Richard Pavitt (Uttlesford Independents, Littlebury, Chesterford & Wenden Lofts) said at the meeting this was an "awful piece of desecration" and suspected it could have been done to remove obstacles to receiving planning approval.

Additionally, the site is in the countryside protection zone, a belt of land intended to protect Uttlesford’s small towns and villages from coalescence with Stansted Airport. Councillor Barbara Light (Lib Dem and Green Alliance Saffron Walden Audley) said the site is "highly inappropriate" for an industrial development.

She said: "To say that movements of cars and lorries would not raise sound level each time one goes past the residential area, it is absolute fantasy."