Plan to build drive thru Costa in Morrisons car park is approved

PROPOSALS to build a drive thru Costa Coffee in the car park of a Bradford retail park have been given the green light.

An application by Morrisons to create a new coffee shop at the Enterprise 5 supermarket was submitted to Bradford Council over the Summer.

The application has now been approved, despite objections that the high street giant would take custom away from local cafes and that the retail park had “destroyed” Idle and Eccleshill.

Morrisons had said the 167 square metre cafe would “rejuvenate” an section of the site that is currently only used for parking, and would create around 15 full time jobs.

Around 75 parking spaces in the Idle supermarket’s 725 space car park will be lost once the cafe is constructed in the South end of the site.

There had been nine objections to the plans from people living near the site.

They claimed neighbours already have to put up with issues of litter, traffic problems and the noise from cars.

Many took issue with the proposed opening hours of the Costa - 5am to 11pm.

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And one objector said: “There are many local cafes and sandwich shops - many are sole traders who are well established which will be impacted on significantly should this development go ahead.

“Since Morrison’s E5 was built in the mid 1980’s it has destroyed Idle and Eccleshill which had many local grocers, butchers, bakers etc, all of which were forced out of business.”

But planning officers pointed out that the business would only be a small addition to a significant retail site, and the cafe would not “make the existing situation any worse.”

They said: “Residents have raised concerns with the use of the site and this proposal, however Five Lane Ends retail park is a designated district centre and there are already a large number of commercial uses operating in this space providing servicing, retail, and food and drink offers.”

Officers claimed the use of this area of the car park could in fact reduce anti-social behaviour on the site, adding: “The proposed changes to facilitate this coffee shop and drive-thru will alter the site and is an intensification of the sites use, however it will remove an area of parking which has presented a nuisance to neighbours in the past, replacing this for a building and drive-thru lane.

“It is considered that there are some advantages to having a late night use operating in this area, including natural surveillance of the site, which is likely to deter anti-social behaviour and management of the site when other units may not be in use.”

Referring to the loss of parking spaces at the retail park, officers said: “Although there will be a loss of 73 parking spaces, there are currently a total of 725 car parking spaces on this site.

“A survey of parking at peak times demonstrated that 174 space were vacant during these hours, and taking away those that will be lost through this application, will still retain 101 vacant spaces.”

One condition of the application is that at least one parking space for the cafe will need to include an electric vehicle charging point.

Another is that deliveries can only be made to the business between 5am and 11pm.