PLANNING officers have rejected an application to expand the premises of a growing business in Thurrock and put a new canopy over an existing adjacent car wash.

The application sought permission for an extension of the existing office building on the site on Southend Road, near the Five Bells Roundabout. The expansion would have included an additional storey to offices, rebuilding and expansion of a workshop and retention of the carwash with a new canopy.

The site, which is in the green belt, is home to Supply2Location which plys its trade in the film and television industry all over the country.

The company specialise in equipment hire and logistics for on-location film, television and associated events. This includes generators, cabling, marquees, sanitation (and currently Covid-19 specialist sanitation), lighting, heating, air-conditioning, temporary accommodation and water bowsers.

Workshops are required for the manufacture or modification of bespoke items and for carrying out repairs. There is a requirement for multiple storage containers, of varying sizes, to accommodate equipment. These are moved on occasion when required.

The Five Bells site is Supply2Location's head office and the company would like to consolidate from other sites. At present there are 10 full time staff and one part time post on this site. The proposed expansion is set to generate an extra 12 full time jobs and two extra part time jobs.

However, council planning officers have examined the plans, including the new canopy for the car wash which fronts the site, and say they constitute inappropriate development within the green belt and is harmful to it.

A decision notice rejecting the application adds: "It would also increase the scale of built form on the site resulting in a loss of openness. No very special circumstances have been provided to justify this harm.

"The proposed development would, by reason of extended daily hours of operation, use of floodlighting, and general disturbance resulting from an intensified use of the site and proposed increase in staffing, be likely to result in an unacceptable impact upon the amenity of neighbouring properties."