CARRY on cutting – the message to a Dorset stone company which set up its business without planning consent.

Dorset Council has now agreed that the firm’s use of a redundant barn is acceptable and has granted full planning permission.

An acoustic report concluded that the business, which is in a relatively remote location, was not making any more noise than you might expect, at a distance, from a domestic garden.

It was set up in Frog Lane, Motcombe, in November 2022 cutting mostly local stone for the building trade and organisations such as the National Trust and English Heritage.

Parish councillors had complained about the noise from sawing and a generator on the site, but were also upset about large lorries and tractors and trailers using the narrow lane, claiming that verges had been damaged and pedestrians, horse riders and walkers could be at risk.

The Dorset Council area planning committee heard that in the last month there had only been nine trips to the site, only one involving an HGV, which highways officers concluded was acceptable and might have been less than when the site was used for agriculture.

A decision on the site had been deferred from an earlier meeting for Dorset Council officers to explore if ways could be found to dampen down the noise.

The report which came back concluded that the business noise falls within accepted limits for the location.

Parish councillor John Taylor told the planning committee that noise was subjective and the sounds of cutting and a generator were not to be expected in the countryside.

“Rural economic development is cited but for Motcombe there is not a shred of economic development, only noise and disruption,” he said.

Almost thirty public objections had been received – with most focusing on the unsuitability of the local roads for the business, with others mentioning the noises and airborne dust and the risk of flooding.

The company, M B Crocker Ltd, operates five days a week from 8am to 4pm and employs two people.

Proposing granting planning permission Cllr Carole Jones said the business was “positive news” and wished the company 'every luck' for the future.

Council chairman Cllr Val Pothecary was the only one to vote against granting planning consent saying she had sympathy with the residents: “there’s no gain for the community, only pain,” she said.