Princes given green light for tempering unit at Long Sutton site
Planners have given the green light for Princes to build a tempering unit at its site in Long Sutton.
Documents submitted to South Holland District Council by Princes describe this as part of an 'ongoing major development' at the Long Sutton site.
The unit - due for the rear of the Bridge Road factory site - will be used to thaw/defrost chickens and gained approval from the council.
The building itself is described as 'minor in scale' but will play a 'key role in compliance and quality control supporting the ongoing contribution which Princes Ltd makes to the area'.
Planning documents explain: "As more of the new and upgraded process lines have come on stream at Princes Ltd Long Sutton there has been a developing need for a dedicated area for tempering to ensure both compliance and quality control. Specifically for chicken product which arrives in refrigerated transport and is stored initially within the cold store warehouse.
"Batches of the meat product will be transferred to tempering in order to meet the specific production requirements of product volume and temperature.
"From frozen the product will be elevated to the target temperature and held by means of strategic monitoring at the optimum supply temperature awaiting transfer to production."
The plan was supported by Long Sutton Parish Council, with no objections raised.
Highways chiefs ruled that this would not add to the traffic on site - as it would provide additional processing facilities for foodstuffs already processed on the site.
District council planners stated: "The intention of national and local policies going forward is to help ensure that businesses can continue to operate or expand with confidence should business needs require additional or different provision.
"It is considered that the principle of the retention of Princes on this site, and the updating of the site is acceptable, providing the proposals are acceptable in terms of environmental impact, the level of traffic movement and intrusion into the open countryside."
