A previously refused call for the relocation of a Pembrokeshire farm diversification scheme which packages and distributes specialist medical equipment across Europe has been backed by councillors despite an officer recommendation of refusal.

In an application recommended for refusal at the December meeting of Pembrokeshire County council’s planning committee, Mr Van Der Spoel sought permission for the relocation and expansion of an existing farm diversification business into an existing agricultural building at Castle Villa, Hayscastle.

Back in July a similar application by Mr Van Der Spoel, through agent Harries Planning Design Management, was refused by planning officers.

A supporting statement for that application said the Dutch-born applicant, together with his wife and adult daughter ran the farm diversification business packing specialist medical supplies at their 135-acre sheep farm.

It added: “The business run from this site is FRIO ASTRID EURO Ltd, which has a franchise agreement with FRIO UK. This business has been run from Castle Villa since its incorporation in 1998. The business was initially run from the stable building on the farmyard at Castle Villa.

“The business set-up involves receiving stock from FRIO UK in Wolfscastle, packaging orders and distributing the stock to seven Western Europe countries.”

Wolfscastle-based FRIO produces the world’s first patented insulin cooling wallet which keeps insulin and other temperature-sensitive medicines cool and safe.

The scheme for the business, said to have outgrown its current site, was refused by county planners on grounds including a lack of “robust evidence” to prove it couldn’t be sited within a nearby settlement or an allocated employment site, such as Haverfordwest.

Since then, an application seeking to address the reasons for refusal was submitted, and, at the request of local member Cllr Mark Carter, a call for the scheme to be decided by full planning committee rather than delegated to officers was backed at the October 21 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning delegation panel.

The latest application is recommended for refusal on similar grounds to previously.

At the December meeting, members heard from agent Wyn Harries his client’s business, selling into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany, accounted for some 20 per cent of FRIO UK’s trade on its own, and had operated for some 25 years “of successful farm diversification,” which “just gets on with doing business in Europe”.

Cllr Brian Hall called for support for the applicant: “Either have a whip round and send him back to Holland or help this man, it’s a local business, they’ve been there 25 years; basically he’s going to go out of business or he can move to Withybush, which is ridiculous, a 25-mile round trip and he’s still looking after the smallholding.”

Cllr Nick Neuman added to Cllr Hall’s sentiments, moving approval on the grounds of a justifiable form of farm diversification, but Cllr Michael Williams sounded a note of caution, saying committee members were “quasi-judicial,” adding: “Unless there are very strong reasons for going against officers, we are putting ourselves in jeopardy.”

Members voted to back a ‘minded to’ approval of the scheme against officer recommendations by 10 votes to one.

The scheme will return to a future planning committee for ratification after a ‘cooling off’ period, and, if backed then, will ultimately be decided by full council.