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A scrap metal business that has been operating from The Lairage on Snitterfield Road, Bearley, about four miles north of Stratford, has asked Stratford-on-Avon District Council for permission after the fact, and the Bearley scrap yard application has drawn strong opposition. By 23 October, 234 public comments had been published. Of the first 98, published by 17 October, 93 object and one supports. The retrospective application, 26/02309/FUL, is open for comments until 12 November.
On this page
What the application is for
The Robert Gibbs (Contracting) Co. Ltd, which trades as Gibbs Scrap, wants to change the use of the site from storage, offices and light engineering to metal recycling. The application is retrospective: the yard is already working. According to its planning statement:
- The 1.87-hectare site has two storage buildings (663 square metres in total), offices and a 1.21-hectare paddock, reached by a private road off Snitterfield Road. It was approved for farm and veterinary use in 1996 and for storage, light industry and offices in 2005 and 2006.
- The business collects scrap offcuts from factories, sorts the metals and sends them on to foundries. It isn’t open to the public, and it plans to start cutting (shearing) new steel offcuts on site.
- It has 12 staff based there, up to 5 more visiting, and 13 lorries, including skip lorries, roll-on roll-off lorries and 12-metre articulated lorries.
- The stated opening hours are 7am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 7am to noon on Saturdays.
The company’s transport statement adds that lorries may leave before 7am. It describes staff arriving and lorries setting off from around 5am, with up to about 26 lorry departures and 26 arrivals a day, and around 78 vehicle trips on a typical day in all. It concludes there are no known highway problems with the current operation, and the agent argues that the change of use is appropriate in the green belt.
What objectors say
Most of the comments come from people in Bearley and Snitterfield. The points raised most often are heavy lorries on the narrow road through both villages, noise early in the morning, safety on the pavements, the green belt setting, and wildlife at the nearby Bearley Bushes Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The board of Stratford Oaks Golf Club, across the road from the yard, has formally objected. It says noise already affects the course and clubhouse, and that noise monitoring it supported with Bearley Parish Council recorded readings of up to 88 decibels on the club’s land. It also raises lorry movements on the roads to the club and the possibility of runoff reaching its drainage, while saying it isn’t claiming any contamination has happened.
What the council’s experts have said so far
The district council’s environmental health team has no objection, but if permission is granted it wants a condition limiting all work at the site, including lorries coming and going, to 7am–5pm on weekdays and 7am–noon on Saturdays, with nothing on Sundays or bank holidays. That would rule out the 5am starts in the transport statement. Environmental health says it can’t assess noise from lorries on public roads and suggests the county council’s highways team looks at the traffic.
Highways, Natural England, the Environment Agency and the county’s minerals and waste planners are among the consultees whose replies hadn’t been published by 23 October. The Stratford Herald has since spoken to residents and the parish council about the early starts.
How to comment, and what happens next
- Comments: open until 12 November on the council’s planning site (26/02309/FUL).
- Decision: the council’s target date is 15 December 2026.
See what else is happening in the villages on our Bearley and Snitterfield pages, or find other applications near you with Planning near me.
Alex Harrington
Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.
