A WHOESALE fruit and veg company based in the centre of Chideock must scale down its transport operations, a government inspector has ruled.

Cains Farm had broken the terms of its planning consent by exceeding the number of vehicles allowed to use its village headquarters, a planning inquiry was told.

As a result West Dorset District Council had issued an enforcement notice ordering the firm to comply with its Certificate of Lawful Use (CLU).

Owner Colin Brown appealed against the decision and applied for retrospective planning permission to continue operating his fleet of vehicles.

But after a public hearing at Bridport last month planning inspector Graham Self ruled in favour of the district council.

He said there was "a demonstrable increase in the quantity and size of vehicles stored at and operating from the land over that permitted".

The inquiry heard that the company had planning permission to operate and store up to a maximum of three LGV vehicles and one trailer together with five small commercial delivery vans on the site.

Mr Self agreed that there was some difficulty in defining the terms used to describe the vehicles. But he said that however the CLU may be interpreted it was clear the development for which planning permission was now being sought involved the operation from the site of a much larger number of goods vehicles and a different mix of vehicles than that specified in the CLU.

Mr Brown was seeking consent to continue to operate his fleet of up to six articulated tractor units of 38-44 tons, eight articulated trailer units, two rigid trucks of 18-20 tonnes, two rigid trucks of 7.5 tonnes and five small vans.

Mr Self said there was evidence that not all these vehicles were normally on the site at any one time and some did not return to Cains Farm for many days. This was a factor to be taken into account.

"However, if planning permission was granted it would not be possible to control the length of time each vehicle spent away from the site," he pointed out.

The inspector ruled that allowing the extra vehicles would have a harmful effect on the appearance and character of the area. The access to the site was also "inherently dangerous". Intensifying use of the site would increase accident risks and obstruct traffic flow.

The firm was given nine months to comply with the enforcement order.