A SUCCESSFUL coach business wants to put a new building on its site near Kempsey to provide for its expanding workforce.

Astons Coaches incorporates a tour company from the Wirral, which moved to Clerkenleap Farm, Bath Road, two years ago.

Managing director Tony Halford said the extra staff had been squeezed into the existing buildings there, but the business had since grown and there were now 50 full-time and 20 part-time staff.

"There is not enough space for them to work in a reasonable environment and we want to move the tour company into a new building, with a crche," Mr Halford said.

The proposed building would not extend the site towards Kempsey, but would be between the present Astons building and other commercial buildings at Clerkenleap, he said.

Kempsey Parish Council has raised objections to the proposal.

"The current use of this site was granted in exceptional circumstances, to remove the business from an inappropriate site in the centre of Kempsey," said planning chairman David Harrison at this week's parish council meeting.

"This application is not consistent with the original planning conditions."

Members felt intensification would be to the detriment of the visual amenity and rural character of the area, he said.

"It would create a dangerous precedent for the establishment of other commercial activities on this site," he added.

There were concerns about coalescence with Worcester arising from further building on the site and an increase of traffic at a hazardous junction with the A38.

Members also suggested that the commercial environment, with large coaches and traffic fumes, did not seem suitable for a crche.

The application has still to be considered by Malvern Hills District Council.