A HEREFORDSHIRE cidermaking firm has had its plan to keep two containers at its site backed by locals.

The firm is having to ask Herefordshire Council for the green light to keep the two stacked containers which are used for office and storage space.

Celtic Marches Beverages is a drinks firm based around Bromyard, making its own drinks and packaging and bottling them at premises on the outskirts of the town centre.

But it put two stacked containers in the yard of the Porthouse Business Centre unit without first getting planning permission.

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Herefordshire Council's planning enforcement team has investigated and concluded that planning permission was needed for the containers. It has now applied for retrospective planning application from planners.

Bromyard and Winslow Town Council's planning and economic development committee decided to support the application.

In a planning statement sent to planners on behalf of applicant Darren Morris, consultants said the company is a successful cidermaker and producer of a wide variety of multi-award-winning craft ciders, perry and other beverages.

The drinks are made from apples grown, picked and pressed locally on the Hancocks' 200-acre family farm at Bishop's Frome, five miles from the site.

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Drinks are then supplied to Tesco, Co-op and pubs, it said.

Ten workers are based at the Bromyard site, where office and storage space are "at a premium". Each container is 9.75m in length,3.05m wide and 2.6m high, the statement said.

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It said that neither the containers themselves nor their use will have an adverse impact on levels of pollution in the river Lugg, with phosphates still blocking housebuilding in the area.

The containers at the site, formerly a Royal Mail sorting office, are stacked to minimise precious space, with the ground level used for office purposes ancillary to business use and the other for storage.

Comments on application 230139 are now closed, with March 13 the target date for a decision.