Plans to rebuild a long-standing Congleton town centre business after it was torched in an arson attack have been approved.

The industrial unit at North Rode Timber, on Bark Street, was destroyed by a fire at the premises in September 2019.

The proposal will replace the building lost to the fire, albeit the plans are for a larger structure located closer to the boundary and adjoining Bank House flats than the previous building.

North Rode Timber has operated on the site for more than 40 years. The total site extends to 0.32 hectares and has frontages to both Bank and Bark Streets within the Moody Street conservation area within Congleton Town Centre.

The replacement industrial building will be 16.6 metres long, 7.5 metres wide and 6.5 metres high to the ridge.

The building will be constructed of red brick, timber cladding with a metal mono pitch roof. Internally it will have a partial mezzanine floor.

In its planning application to Cheshire East Council, the business stated: "The site is a long-established employment site. The building will replace a building destroyed by fire as a result of the arson attack at the premises.

"While larger than its predecessor, a new building is now required following the fire, the applicant seeks a replacement building that will meet the ongoing needs of the business. It will be an essential part of the business operation."

The site is also with an area of archaeological potential.

The County Archaeologist advised that the Desk based assessment (DBA) highlighted the potential remains of a tannery-a place where animals hide was on the site.

Also highlighted in the DBA was a water feature which runs the length of the north east of the proposed development area, which appears as noted in the DBA as a possible mill race.

The tannery and potential mill race could both be disturbed or in part destroyed by the construction of the new industrial building.

However, a programme of archaeological observation may be undertaken in order to identify and record those potential deposits during specific elements of the development.

This programme of archaeological observation may take the form of a developer funded watching brief. A planning condition was therefore necessary.

The real area of concern was whether the proposed industrial shed type building, due to its greater height/scale and closer proximity to the adjacent residential uses, would be detrimental to those occupiers by greater environmental noise disturbance.

The rear bedroom windows of the residential use at Park House are 17m from the blank gable end of the proposed building.

The rear facing façade of the proposed building contained no openings and given the level differences between the sites, the submitted info indicated that the roof level of the proposal will be at mid window level of the ground floor bedroom in the adjacent, overlooking flats.

Given the 17m distance and the mono pitch nature of the roof, this was considered adequate in terms of over-bearingness.

However, the building is not intended to be internally insulated and uses such as sawing and milling of wood products (or any other timber yard type use) could occur.

Susan Orrell, Cheshire East Council Planning Case Officer said in her report: "There could be some banging and crashing in this building and given the lack of internal insulation, this could result in unexpected bangs and crashes for the neighbours which would be potentially noisy.

"This would be more significant given the greater size and proximity of the proposed building to the sensitive façade overlooking/adjoining.

"The applicant has clarified that the proposal intended to be used for the storage of timber products only within a larger site where timber products are processed.

"Whilst this is noted, given that this proposed building is not a separate planning unit, the primary use of this site is as a timber yard within Class B2, any other Class B2 use could move on to the site which may not wish to utilise the building as Class B8 storage as the applicant wishes.

"Given this, it is considered necessary and reasonable, given the greater scale and proximity of the building to the neighbours to limit the use of the building to storage within Class B8.

"It is also considered reasonable to not allow any openings on the façade overlooking the adjacent residential use, to further safeguard the amenity and future living conditions of the residential neighbours, to stop noise associated with storage type activities from escaping from the rear elevation directly towards the residential façade."

Susan Orrell concluded: "Whilst the use specified does not tie in with the Congleton Local Plan allocation DP3, the land use allocation is not fettered by this proposal, which is considered to be an economically sustainable form of development on an existing employment site.

"Subject to conditions to protect the residential amenity of the neighbours and the setting of nearby heritage assets within the Conservation area, the development wouldn't raise any other planning issues, and is otherwise considered to accord with relevant policies of the development plan."

The planning application was approved through delegated powers on Friday (27th March).