Extra bottling for Herefordshire brewery

One of Herefordshire’s largest breweries has been given the go-ahead for a building extension to up its bottling capacity.

Wye Valley Brewery in Stoke Lacy, south of Bromyard, said that the pandemic had hastened the shift in beer sales from kegs to bottles, which have a longer shelf life and give rise to less wastage of beer.

The 530-square-metre extension will nearly double the size of its current bottling plant, the application said.

With a lower floor level, “at significant increased cost”, in order to reduce its height, it will also have the same cladding and roof pitch as the existing building, “to ensure the overall view is similar”, it added.

Giving approval, the planning officer said: “The applicant has confirmed they don’t intend to run the site as a 24/7 operation, (but) in shifts during the week as they have done to date, namely bottling between 7am and 5pm.

“Subject to that condition, I would view that residential amenity is safeguarded.”

The application also proposed a new vehicle inspection building and staff parking area at the rear, leaving the front car park free for customers and visitors, while relocating general storage away from neighbouring residents.

The inspection building would make it easier to carry out the required daily inspections on the brewery’s fleet of 14 lorries and vans, which is difficult to do outside in the dark or in bad weather, the application said.

No objections were made by the council’s environmental health, transport and drainage officers, nor by Welsh Water, the parish council or residents.

Wye Valley has been in business since 1985, making it by some way the oldest of Herefordshire’s 11 active breweries, according to beer directory website Quaffale.

Its latest accounts, for the year to April 2020, show it was on track for 5 per cent growth before the pandemic hit in late February, sending its turnover down 5 per cent instead, to £11.5 million.