Plans to build two new units on an existing industrial site have been approved despite objections from residents due to "relentless" noise.

At a meeting of Oldham Council's planning committee on Wednesday November 15, members discussed an application to build the two industrial units on land off Leonard Way in Royton.

The site is an existing industrial site which sits south of Salmon Fields and east of Oldham Edge, however nearby residents have claimed the noise levels coming from the existing site have caused major disturbance. 

At the meeting, a resident, speaking on behalf of other people who live near the site, told committee members that the noise coming from the industrial site was "relentless" and "constant".

The woman said she struggled to sleep due to the noise and that it had been a disturbance during her education, while other residents in attendance voiced their displeasure from the public gallery.

Cllr Steven Bashforth, who represents Royton South, told fellow committee members that he could hear noise from the site from where he lived a few roads away as the site generated "a lot of noise".

Cllr Bashforth, who abstained in the vote, added that residents were "quite rightly" concerned about that proposals regarding two new buildings and said it was important that conditions be imposed to make sure the new units did not add to the existing noise problem. 

Permission to use the site for the purpose of developing further industrial units was approved in August 2020.

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Planning officer Graham Dickman, the case officer for the application, admitted to the committee that on a recent visit to the site it was "incredibly noisy" and that environmental health were looking into the concerns of residents.

Speaking on behalf of the applicant, Marshall CDP, was Miranda Bell, planning manager for the company, who said she was "not happy" to hear what the residents had been going through.

Ms Bell told the committee she was not made aware of the residents concerns until Mr Dickman had raised them with her a week prior to the meeting.

She said she was "sorry" to the residents for what they had experienced and that Marshall CDP wanted to work with the residents to make sure the conditions of the new units would be acceptable to them.

Ms Bell said one of the machines most responsible for the noise disturbance, which she believed to be a crusher, was no longer needed at the site.

According to Ms Bell, the two new units would create between 159 and 308 jobs.

The committee approved the application, however the applicant's request for unrestricted hours of operation were declined.

Instead, conditions state the site can only be in operation between 7am and 11pm each day.