COUNCILLORS have gone against the recommendations of officers and refused plans to build a cafe at a busy Bradford junction.
Members of the Bradford Planning Panel disagreed that double yellow lines would be enough to deter people parking at the junction of Beckside Road and Spencer Road - the location of the proposed cafe.
An application for a new cafe and tearoom on a vacant piece of land at 117 - 119 Beckside Road was submitted to Bradford Council by Raheel Munir last year.
It was the latest in a string of planning application submitted to the Council to create cafes out of storage containers, and work on the business has already started.
The application went before members of the panel yesterday morning, where Councillors raised concerns about the location of this planned cafe, as well as commenting on the problems that have been caused by businesses in similar areas.
Officers had recommended that the panel approve the plans.
Members were shown photos of the site, which showed that work on the cafe was well underway, despite a decision on the application not yet having been made.
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They were told there would be parking on site, and that highways officers had not raised any serious concerns about the plans. Any parking on double yellow lines could be enforced.
Double yellow lines on the junction would prevent customers parking up on the road and popping to the cafe to get a drink, officers claimed.
However, some members of the committee did not agree.
Councillor Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) also sits on the Bradford West Area Committee, and said residents of the area regularly raise concerns about traffic in this area. He said: "Cars pulling into this site will be backing up traffic at the roundabout.
"The nuisance to residents will be massive, we see problems at other outlets like this.
"In the evening you get cars parked on both sides of the roads on double yellows. It is alright officers saying this is an enforcement issue not a planning issue, but someone has to enforce it.
"People will just park their car on Beckside Road, run in and get a coffee then run out."
Officers said this application had to be assessed on its own merits, and that there was enough car parking for a cafe of this size. Planning officer Amin Ibrar said: "We have to work on the assumption that people will abide by the double yellow lines."
He said the cafe would not be close enough to any homes to cause noise concerns.
Chair of the Committee Shabir Hussain (Lab, Manningham) said: "There have been similar establishments that have turned into drive thru tea shops and have caused massive problems in different areas."
He said he had seen police and wardens at sites of other similar businesses, and nothing ever seemed to be done about traffic and bad parking.
Councillor Gerry Barker (Cons, Wharfedale) said: "We have to consider the application before us, I think we're getting sidetrackd here."
Cllr Hussain said: "I accept we have to take matters on their own merits, but we have a lack of police to monitor traffic and enforcement cases can last two years. In the mean time residents suffer.
"They have already started building - that is how confident they are. They are showing their intentions before they even start."
Bob Power, Council solicitor, said: "I know a lot of members get frustrated when developers jump the gun. Planning law says all we can do is look at the application in front of us. If developers jump the gun then they run the risk they might get refused. We shouldn't be attaching prejudice to an application because it has already started. We can only look at planning issues, that is the law."
When told the panel could not refuse a planning application solely because it was retrospective, Cllr Hussain said: "I know how it works - I had a lot of publicity about this issue."
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He was referring to a Telegraph & Argus article in 2018 about a planning panel meeting where Cllr Hussain was quoted as saying anyone who was automatically against planning applications because they were retrospective should not sit on planning panels.
He was criticised for the comments, but argued that planning panels needed to look at every application fairly - not pre-judge applications because of how they were submitted.
Members voted to go against officers advice and refuse the Beckside Road application because of highways concerns and the impact on the amenity of people living near the junction.
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