A VILLAGE car wash operating without planning consent is making some residents lives a misery and must go, says Fenland Council.

The council’s planning committee will be asked next week to authorise legal action against the car wash at Sisco Service Station in Doddington Road, Wimblington.

Gavin Taylor, the council’s planning compliance officer, says the impact of the hand car wash on neighbours “is significant in terms of effect and impact”.

He says the noise associated with the operation, relating to both the physical process and the machinery used, “is such that the scheme has an unacceptable impact on residential amenity”.

Mr Taylor accepts the site has historically been used commercially but the use now proposed brings what was a passive area for storing vehicles into active use involving machinery and tools.

The council refused a retrospective application earlier this year for the car wash to continue following a number of objections.

The objections were supported by the council’s own environmental inspection team who had issued a noise abatement notice.

“Breaches of the abatement notice have been witnessed and a case file has been prepared for the legal team,” the inspection team reported.

Mr Taylor said the retrospective planning application was refused on June 17 and an enforcement notice served on July 14. The appeal application date for notice expired on August 13 “and no appeal has been submitted”.

The council is insisting the car wash stops immediately and the land returned to its former use and all machinery removed.

Councillors will be asked on Wednesday to approve legal action if the use continues.