By Cameron Blackshaw

A scaffolding yard has won its planning appeal against a council despite neighbours’ concerns it posed a safety risk to children.

Masons Scaffolding is located to the rear of Churchfields Road Reuse and Recycling Centre in Beckenham at the end of an access road between a playground and a primary school.

It moved operations to the London Electricity Board Depot at the end of the road in November 2023 without permission, so in the spring of 2024, Bromley Council asked it to submit a retrospective planning application.

The application received an overwhelmingly negative response from locals, with the 440 objectors chiefly concerned about HGVs turning in and out of the site and the noise generated by site operations.

Bromley refused planning permission in October last year, before serving enforcement action on the site in January 2025.

However, Masons appealed against the enforcement and the planning permission refusal, with a public inquiry taking place in August.

At this hearing, the deputy head of Churchfields Primary School and several Churchfields Road residents claimed there had been “a number of near misses” outside the school between pedestrians and HGVs turning into the scaffolding yard.

Masons disputed this, stating they employed a banksman during school drop-off and pick-up times who ensured all HGV movements were “perfectly safe”.

Planning inspector Melissa Madge handed down her decision this week, siding with the scaffolding business and granting it temporary planning permission to operate the yard for five years subject to certain conditions.

Ms Madge was “unconvinced” by video evidence submitted by Churchfields Road residents that the HGV movements “constitute a severe risk to highway safety”.

She also did not feel the frequency of vehicles entering and exiting the site posed a risk, as there is already a large volume of traffic in the area due to the recycling centre, school and Churchfields Road being on a bus route.

Ms Madge also concluded that noise generated by the scaffolding business did not “significantly harm the living conditions of neighbouring occupiers”.

She did however restrict the action of pole cutting to a maximum of two hours per week to address the concerns of residents who were unhappy about the noise.

The inspector imposed a condition that a banksman must be in place during peak school times to supervise vehicle movements, something Masons claimed it was already doing.

Ms Madge also placed a restriction on the maximum length of HGVs that could come into the site.

Masons Scaffolding managing director and founder Grant Mason welcomed the news of the appeal win, stating the decision was “right and just” and many of the concerns raised had been “overhyped”.

He added: “I think people could see that we acted diligently by putting the banks up there every day for the school to sort of appease any concerns.

“We have not had any incidents, any near misses, anything like that to do with us since the day we were down there.

“I think common sense prevailed in all honesty. I am very clear in that I run a very professional, diligent business, and we go about our business properly.

“We have got everything in place and how it should be, and I think after the wealth of information that was provided [to the inquiry] and all the data and the tests and everything, I think it was recognised and hence the appeal was accepted.”