A DERELICT agricultural yard is to be converted to a modern mini industrial estate on the edge of Wellington after Somerset Council gave planning approval.

Three dilapidated commercial buildings will be demolished in Cox’s Yard, off Taunton Road, and three modern ones built which will be split into seven business units.

Planning officer Anthony Pick said a B2 classification was originally sought for larger-scale industrial and manufacturing use on the site but this had been dropped in order to protect the amenities of surrounding residential estates.

Mr Pick said any future change of use of any of the units would have to be considered on its own merits.

He said redevelopment of the half-acre site would deliver an improved design and energy efficiency with new landscaping and was not considered to unreasonably affect the living amenities of neighbours.

Mr Pick said a condition of approval was the yard could only be used 8 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday and until 1 pm on Saturday.

Town councillors opposed the proposal on the grounds that it was an over-intensification of a site surrounded by housing and would see an increase in vehicle movements in and out of the yard on a dangerous stretch of road.

Planning agent Nick Francis, of LSL Architecture Ltd, said it was a brownfield site within the development boundary of Wellington.

He said commercial use of Cox’s Yard had existed since after the Second World War with a variety of industrial uses.

The style of buildings were typical industrial units made of steel, timber, and corrugated sheeting which were now in a poor condition and had come to the end of their ‘building life’.

Mr Francis said the new, well insulated buildings would last for the next 50 or more years and make good use of previously developed land.