A BUSINESSMAN at the centre of a planning dispute says he has done everything he can to ease a community's concerns over his meat factory.

People from West Auckland attended a meeting of Wear Valley District Council to protest against plans involving the HDV Foods factory near their homes.

One protestor, Tom Hutchinson, told the meeting on Friday that feelings about the factory were very strong.

He pleaded with councillors to refuse plans for a turning table for refrigeration vehicles and rolling shutter doors because people were worried about noise, traffic and possible smells nuisance and pollution.

Councillor John Ferguson said that the turning table would be too close to homes and refrigeration lorries were extremely noisy and would disturb people's sleep.

A difference in opinion as to how close the turning table was to nearby house led to councillors voting for a site visit.

Afterwards, Mr Hutchinson said: "The feeling of the village is that we wanted it to be rejected. At least we have put it back by getting this site meeting.''

But Stephen Speed, 36, who has established the new business with his wife Suzanne and brother-in-law George Scott, said he had done as much as he possibly could to try to reassure local people about the business.

He said: "I can understand the residents being worried about the noise of the refrigeration wagons. Before the meeting on Friday night I invited two of the residents and Councillor Ferguson to have a look around, just to show them what we are doing, but they refused. They just don't want to listen to reason."

Mr Speed said he was prepared to put in landscaping and amend the scheme to replace the rolling shutter doors for plastic coated doors to be painted any colour neighbouring people chose.

He said he had put the purchase of the factory on hold to await the outcome of the planning decision.

"We have obviously spent a lot of money on this project and the planning department have been there from day one. But there is no point in having the factory if we can't run it the way we want," Mr Speed said.