Sible Hedingham: Tanners Dairy fire 'was deliberate'

Firefighters investigating a huge fire at the derelict and disused Tanners Dairy site in Prayors Hill, Sible Hedingham, believe the fire was started deliberately.

Crews from five fire stations were called to the site at about 8pm yesterday and arrived to find the blaze had taken hold of the entire building.

The fire was fully extinguished by 12.45am today and crews returned later to check the area and monitor for any hotspots.

Huge - a plume of smoke erupted from the derelict building (Image: Callum Ratcliffe-Bingham)

Speaking last night, station manager Pete Donovan said: "Crews worked extremely hard to get this fire under control as quickly as they did.

"The roof collapsed, which has made fully extinguishing the fire even more difficult."

Crews from Sible Hedingham, Halstead, Coggeshall, and Braintree, rushed to the scene alongside Colchester’s aerial ladder platform and Halstead’s water bowser, which is used to supply large amounts of water.

Firefighters - crews from five stations attended (Image: ECFRS)

Hedingham councillors Jo Beavis and Wendy Taylor praised the efforts of the fire service.

Speaking on social media, they wrote: “We would like to thank everyone involved in tackling tonight’s blaze – firefighters from across our district.

“The Tanners site remains the Hedingham ward’s largest development site and is in the Braintree District adopted local plan. We will be seeking answers from Braintree Council on enforcement/safety grounds moving forward.”

The derelict site is earmarked for the development of 50 homes in Braintree Council's local plan.

On scene - fire crews tackled the huge blaze (Image: ECFRS)

A developer submitted proposals to demolish the existing buildings to construct 54 homes to Braintree Council's planning department in 2018, but a decision is yet to be made.

One critic pointed out that the village "does not have the infrastructure to support this number of new homes".

The Sible Hedingham site was left abandoned when the firm's owner ceased its operations in the village in 2006.

Its closure came after the sale of the Tanner Foods empire by the Tanner family to a large dairy co-operative four years earlier.

Milk Link, the co-operative which took over before merging with dairy giant Arla Foods itself in 2012, said the decision to cease production in the village was made due to the national trend of milk production moving towards the west of the UK.