WORK has started on a new lorry park just outside Gretna.
It is located on land next to Richardson House at Mill Hill and will feature 40 spaces for HGVs, as well as welfare facilities, a maintenance area and storage.
The development, named Junction 45 Ltd, Truckstop and Service Station, falls on the border between Gretna and Longtown so was given planning permission by Carlisle City Council.
Applicant Robert Little got the go ahead in September 2021 but work has only recently started to clear the site.
Posting an update on social media last week, he said it was ‘coming soon’.
A noise and vibration management plan has been put in place to ensure there is no adverse impact on nearby residents.
A ‘comprehensive’ landscaping scheme is also required to screen the area and tree preservation orders have been imposed following concerns about the removal of trees locally.
Objections had been lodged with the city council by Springfield and Gretna Green Community Council, who raised concerns about the increased impact of traffic having to pass through their villages enroute to the lorry park.
Responding, Carlisle planning officials said: “It has been suggested that the lorry park would adversely impact on the attractiveness and prosperity of Gretna as a destination because it would promote an increase in traffic through the settlement and cause its quality to diminish.
“The general view of the planning service is that any increase in the level of movement, although perceptible would be highly likely to be so problematic as to promote a reason to refuse the application.
“As a side effect of development, residents and businesses within the Gretna Green/Gretna settlements may notice a slight increase in traffic using its roads, but Gretna’s brand and presence in the local economy is so strong that it could not reasonably be concluded that the lorry park could trigger any significant diminishment to tourism, having particular regard to the fact that similar traffic utilises the road network at present.”
In their final planning report on the application, the local authority also acknowledged that there will be some impacts on nearby residents and businesses in terms of activity, movement, light, air quality and noise impacts – but said they could be mitigated acceptably.
They added: The development of a lorry park and associated preparation/sales facility in this location is not necessarily what would be thought of as first choice, if alternative proposals were forthcoming. The locality, though, is by no means pristine and includes the Scotts commercial site to the north, so although it has been concluded that the site is not fully previously developed, it is previously partially developed and relates to other commercial (non-agricultural) major activity close by.
“It can be accepted, to some extent, that the development would give rise to a form of rural diversification.”
