South Norfolk's environmental team objects to a self-service car wash on Carver Way until the 24-hour opening is explained. A decision is due by 1 October.
South Norfolk Council’s own environmental officers have objected to plans for a self-service car wash on Harleston’s industrial estate, because the application says the site would run 24 hours a day and does not explain why.
The application, reference 2026/1907, covers land off Carver Way, in the yard of Unit 1 on Harleston Industrial Estate, some 15 miles south-east of Wymondham. It was received on 1 July and validated on 6 August. The council’s internal target date for a decision is 1 October 2026.
The scheme is small. According to the applicant’s planning statement, prepared by LRM Planning for Westfield Architects, it would put on an area of existing hardstanding now used to park vehicles:
- four central wash bays
- drying and vacuum bays on the western side
- a self-service laundry unit
- seven parking spaces
Vehicles would come in from Carver Way, loop round the site and leave at the same point. The application form puts the job figure at four part-time posts, two full-time equivalents, with no existing employees on the site. The applicant named on the register is Mr Szymon Poltorak.
The 24-hour question
The form is where the problem starts. It gives the opening hours as 00:00 to 00:00 on Monday to Friday, on Saturday and on Sunday and bank holidays. In the section on industrial and commercial processes it is explicit, describing “self service car wash bays with vacuum and drying bays equipment and self service laundry machine (24 hour use)”.
The council’s Environmental Quality team replied on 10 August. Its officer asked for details of the proposed lighting, then asked “why 24/7 use of the site is required”, warning that it “could significantly increase the noise from traffic in the area, specifically during nighttime hours”. The consultation reply ends: “Until the above has been provided, I object to the application.”
As of 3 September, the council’s file carries no response from the applicant on either point.
What the town council said
Redenhall with Harleston Town Council neither objected nor supported, but its comment of 17 August raised four things.
It accepted the site is on land currently used for lorry parking and is “largely screened from Spirketts Lane”. But it said the apparent 24-hour, seven-day operation needs clarifying, because unrestricted hours “could give rise to noise disturbance, increased lighting impacts, and potential anti-social behaviour, particularly during night-time periods”.
It also asked for:
- the cumulative traffic effect on Mendham Lane and Spirketts Lane to be assessed, alongside the new developments under way and the Lidl store, under policy RWH15 of the neighbourhood plan
- water supply, drainage and wastewater arrangements to be confirmed with Anglian Water
- consideration of what it called the “apparent lack of comfort facilities for users and employees”
Where the two sides disagree
The applicant’s case is that this is small-scale employment development inside Harleston’s development boundary, on brownfield land in a town the Greater Norwich Local Plan classes as a Main Town, and that it should therefore be approved in principle.
On amenity, the planning statement says the proposal “would not have a detrimental impact on the living conditions of any neighbouring residents as there are none in the vicinity”. The same document also records that the wider industrial estate “borders residential estates to the north, east, and west south”, and that the estates to the east, south and west “have only recently begun construction”. The town council’s traffic point rests on the same new housing.
On drainage, the drainage strategy by Lutra Consultancy says the wash bays would drain to sump units, then through a new petrol interceptor, and only then into the local foul drainage system, kept separate from surface water. Surface water run-off from the site would be unchanged.
One detail has been overtaken. The planning statement argues its case against the National Planning Policy Framework of December 2024. That version was replaced on 17 August 2026, eleven days after this application was validated, so the paragraph numbers the statement quotes are no longer the ones in force.
What it means for you
If you live on Mendham Lane, Spirketts Lane or one of the new estates going up around the industrial estate, the hours are the thing to watch. Both consultees who have commented so far have pressed on that single point, and opening hours are the kind of thing a council attaches a condition to when it grants permission.
The formal consultation period has closed. Neighbour and standard consultation ran to 27 August, and the site notice expired on 2 September. In practice, South Norfolk’s planning register still shows the application as open to comment, and comments received before the decision are normally taken into account. The case officer is Andrew Parnell, and comments go through the application page on the council’s planning portal.
The application is listed as pending consideration. No committee date has been set, and the register leaves the expected decision level blank.
We track new applications across the district on our Wymondham planning news page.
Have your say