A highly successful Lancashire wholesaler is facing moving from its premises of 30 years as residential neighbours complain of noise.
Richard Wellock & Sons has been trading for 48 years, the last 30 of them from a former mill site in the village of Trawden. Although the site has always been used for industrial purposes, residents in newly built houses are complaining of disruption. “When we first moved onto the site we had four vehicles,” said director James Wellock. “Now we have 12 heavy goods vehicles and three vans. But when we were first here we shared the site with two haulage companies and a bus company that had 20 coaches and buses and was operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The firm sources produce directly from growers, delivering into restaurants and hotels. “We have bucked the downward trend in this trade because we have a massive network of producers that we work hard at expanding continually,” said Wellock. “We deliver produce in the morning to the chefs, talk to our growers and place orders with them, collect the produce and deliver it to restaurants, all within 24 hours.”
Wellock is frustrated as his firm is operating lawfully, and has introduced numerous measures in the past six months to control noise levels, such as a one-way system for vehicles and electric fork-lifts.
Almost half of the 55-60 employees live in Trawden.
“There is not really an ideal solution,” said Wellock. “We appreciate that the neighbours have an issue, but now we are asking the council to try and help us, maybe in the form of planning permission to build houses on this site and to help us find a new site - we have already identified a couple of options.”
