OUTSOURCED cheese processing could return to the Parks Farm, Litton Cheney site under a proposal approved by Dorset Council.

The company has been given permission to build a new cheese processing building and add additional car parking space.

Long Bredy and Kingston Russel parish council returned a neutral response to the application fearing additional traffic for both of its parishes.

But while the council’s transport development team say the opposite is likely to be the case with a decrease in vehicles, the council’s highways team say it would result in an increase of 6-10 vehicles movements each week.

Ashley Chase Estate has been given consent for what it describes as “a modest building’ of 180 square metres on a third of a hectare site to match others already there. The new unit would be immediately to the north of the existing complex within the car park area which itself would be expanded.

An application report says the use of the building would allow work which is currently outsourced to be brought on site.

An agent for the company says the changes to the car park will increase the number of spaces by ten to 55 in total although it says it expects no increase in the workforce which, at the time the application was submitted in mid- March, was 125 full-time and 20 part-time.

The application says both the proposed car park extension and new building will sit below the general ground level to the north and, when landscaping has been added, neither will be conspicuous in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“The proposed building is modest in scale but will enable the business to operate more efficiently in terms of activities undertaken at this site resulting in a modest reduction in daily traffic movements – particularly in relation to larger vehicles,” said an agent’s letter.

The company sells its cheeses under the name of Ford Farm Dairy and describes itself as a traditional farmhouse cheddar maker using milk from local, free-range dairy herds. It also makes special presentation wax-coated truckles for Christmas and now also produces Dorset Red, a mild, orange cheddar cold smoked over oak chips and a truffle cheese, much of which is exported to the USA.