Supermarket giant Asda has come under fire again over a machine nearby families say has driven them from their gardens.
The company has been embroiled in a long-running battle with Northumberland County Council to get retrospective planning permission for an air handling unit at its Tweedmouth store in Berwick.
The proposals were initially turned down for permission over a lack of information around the noise issue, with Northumberland County Council's decision upheld by the planning inspectorate following an appeal.
Read more: 58 affordable homes to be built in Berwick to help families living in 'awful' conditions
A new application went before the North Northumberland Local Area Committee in March, with the new application containing surveys of the noise produced by the device, which is used to regulate and circulate air in the store as part of a heating and ventilating system. However, members voted to defer the decision until it carried out its own assessments of the noise level.
At the latest meeting of the committee on Thursday, members were told that Asda had re-programmed the system not to operate between 10pm and 8am, unless the internal temperature inside the store dropped to below 10 degrees. It was explained this would only occur in "exceptional" winter circumstances.
Furthermore, a noise assessment carried out by the council measured sound levels at 42 decibels during the day and 36 at night - therefore concluding that the rating level of the air handling unit did not exceed the background noise levels at either time.
Despite this, some neighbours were not satisfied. One, identified as Mr Dodds, said: "This has been on the table for years.
"It is still noisy, they still don't have planning permission. Nothing has changed from when you rejected it last time. Asda still make no effort to talk to us."
Berwick East's Coun Georgina Hill proposed rejecting the application for a second time, arguing that "the noise issue has not been dealt with".
However, Coun Hill was unable to secure a second councillor to support her proposal, meaning it failed. Members then voted to grant permission.
Coun Trevor Thorne said: "This is a very difficult subject. I don't think Asda have handled it well. Their liaison with neighbours has not been good.
"But, we have to go with our people from public health. They put a lot of work into it and I have faith in them.
"If Asda do breach permissions it will go back to environmental health and they will deal with them."
The plans were voted through by five votes to one.
Read next:
- Cramlington firm fined £200,000 after worker suffers injury by being pulled into machine
- Probe launched after 'abandoned caravan' destroyed by fire in the car park of Prudhoe Legion Club
- Stannington housing development 'looking better' after councillors slammed Bellway
- "I always knew she would kill her": Odessa Carey's brother says family begged for help before his mentally ill sister killed and beheaded their mum
- Some PCSOs saved from Northumbria Police budget cut axe as bosses scale back job loss plans
