A frustrated north Derbyshire councillor has urged a local authority to do what it can to help residents who have complained about noise during extension work night-shifts at a large Chesterfield-based cold storage facility.
NE Derbyshire District Council gave planning permission back in 2021 for the extension at the Magnavale cold storage facility on Park Road, at Holmewood, Chesterfield, off Junction 29 of the M1 motorway, and work has been underway at the site.
However, District Cllr Suzy Cornwell, for Holmewood and Heath, told a Full Council meeting on March 4 that Holmewood residents’ lives have been made a misery and she asked whether anything could be done to prevent residents having to endure any further noise and disruption.
Cllr Cornwell said: “On behalf of the residents of Holmewood, I am really frustrated and disappointed that a giant freezer the size of a football pitch has been allowed to be built metres from residents’ homes.
“It had no conditions on the build phase and it had no site visit. The result of this has made residents’ lives a misery.”
Magnavale, one of the UK’s leading providers of temperature-controlled storage, started work on the extension at the site in 2023 and it is expected to be completed in 2024.
The company has had excavation work completed and the extension’s concrete foundations have been poured and work has been focussing on the steelwork construction of the cold store, according to the Chesterfield Borough Council-backed Destination Chesterfield partnership which promotes business in the region.
Destination Chesterfield has also stated that the extension aims to accommodate increasing volumes of Magnavale’s existing customers as well as new customers.
NE Derbyshire District Cllr Stephen Pickering, Cabinet member for Environment and Place, told Cllr Cornwell: “From the information you have had I can understand how disheartening and what a terrible set of circumstances there are for the people in Holmewood.
“Unfortunately, I have to say we cannot turn the clock back on planning decisions. This decision was made nearly three years ago and it’s extremely difficult going forward to change this.
“However, I do understand you have had a meeting with planning and environmental health where you have been able to discuss ways we might be able to go forward on this and where we might be able to look at options in the future.”
Cllr Cornwell accused the district council of omitting appropriate restrictions when it gave the original planning permission and consent for the construction of a large industrial cold store building on the Holmewood Industrial Estate.
She stated: “Whilst the jobs this unit creates are welcome, when granting that application the council failed to include appropriate planning conditions limiting the hours of work during the construction phase of the development.
“As a result building work has been taking place at all times of the day, including the early hours of the morning, continuing until 4am recently.”
Destination Chesterfield has stated Magnavale’s extension will add a significant 25,000 pallet positions to the cold store’s existing capacity of 40,000 bringing the total pallet capacity of the facility to 65,000 making it one of the largest cold stores in the area.
District Cllr Cornwell told the meeting: “I would like a commitment from Cllr Pickering that nothing like this can happen again under our watch and that we can work with officers at NE Derbyshire to create best practice procedures for any builds of this nature moving forward.”
Magnavale’s Chesterfield facility is the UK’s largest supplier of blast freezing solutions and its extension aims to accommodate increasing volumes of Magnavale’s existing customers as well as new customers including food manufacturers, according to Destination Chesterfield.
Cllr Pickering said: “If there had been different conditions on, it might have been very different. What I can commit to is for me to be involved and to support the councillors from Holmewood working with the assistant directors to take all those on board and look at how we might include that in shaping our policies and guidance going forward.”
A Magnavale Chesterfield spokesperson has issued ‘sincere apologies’ in a statement on the company’s website for any inconvenience caused.
Magnavale explained it had begun pouring the first half of a top concrete slab on February 5 and this process had involved ‘power floating’ late into the evening and potentially into the early morning – which produces a smooth and level surface.
The spokesperson told residents: “Whilst our contractors have advised that the noise of the power floats can travel, particularly as one end of the new building is currently open, unfortunately this was very difficult to predict the noise level experienced by you the residents.”
Magnavale added this has been a continuous process beginning at the start of the day and that from the moment the concrete has been poured, the ‘power floating’ needs to happen immediately afterwards and due to it being such a large area it has gone on into the late and early hours.
The spokesperson stated Magnavale has been advised this work could not be done any other way and it was extremely sorry to have had to advise residents there would likely be further disturbance during normal out-of-hours working on the evenings of February 6 and 7 with this hopefully having been completed by February 8, weather permitting,
Magnavale stated this was the last of the planned works which involves ‘power floating’ outside of agreed working hours.
However, it also stated Yorkshire Water was expected to be on-site to complete works on February 24 and 25 and that Yorkshire Water needed to return to complete further works on March 2 but Magnavale added that it had requested that noise be kept to a minimum.
