Factory Development, Suffolk

Client: Konings Juices and Drinks Ltd

LPA: Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Council

The proposal sought permission for new buildings and extensions to the existing factory buildings comprising over 22,000 sqm of additional floorspace for additional fruit juice storage, canning and packing facilities. 

The proposal forms EIA development as it exceeds the thresholds set out within Schedule 2, 7(b) food industry, of the EIA Regulations, due to the scale of floorspace proposed and its location within a sensitive area, namely an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).  It was therefore established the proposal formed EIA development and a screening opinion was not sought. 

In January 2017, a Scoping Report was submitted to the Local Authority setting out the technical matters to be addressed within the Environmental Statement and the methodologies to be employed throughout the assessment.  These matters were agreed with the Local Authority and an Environmental Statement (ES) duly prepared.

Boyer co-ordinated the production of the ES and prepared the non-technical chapters and non-technical summary as well as the technical socio-economic assessment chapter. An ES addendum was prepared providing further detail on the need for the proposal within the AONB as well as further heritage assessment.  Both the ES and addendum were subject to an independent peer review and considered acceptable.

The application was withdrawn due to changes in the requirements of the client.  Boyer was involved in a further application for a smaller scale extension to the existing facilities on the site, which was approved in 2018.