PLANS to install a shipping container next to a shop to create a new chai café have been refused – but much of the work appears to have already been completed.
Highways officers had raised serious concerns about the plans for the new café at the junction of Horton Park Avenue and Crossley Street – an area flanked by a bus stop and double yellow lines.
And this week the application, by Faisal Sheikh, was refused by planners who argued the plans should be classed as retrospective as the container “has already been installed.”
The application was to convert 2 Horton Park Avenue – currently classed as a shop, to a café was submitted in June.
As well as the change of use, the application sought permission for a shipping container to be installed on a stone terrace next to the building. This would then be used as seating and serving space for the café business.
It would be clad with stone in an attempt to blend in with neighbouring buildings.
Twelve people had objected to the plans, arguing the area was densely populated and that parking was already at a premium for residents without the added pressure of a new café.
When the Telegraph & Argus visited the site, just yards from a recently completed road improvement scheme, on Wednesday the development appeared to be nearing completion.
Refusing the application, planning officers said: “The main visual harm of this proposal is the proposed detached shipping container.
“From visiting the site, the container has already been installed making this application retrospective.
“It forms a dominating feature within the site and a visually obtrusive feature which is out of keeping and harms the appearance of the area and streetscene with this site highly visible from public vantage points as it fronts onto Horton Park Avenue.”
Highways officers had also raised concerns, saying: “The site has no designated parking provision with the on-site parking to the side and rear of the site on Crossley Street for use by existing residents and is limited and already in high demand with no off-street parking provision for this site.
“The proposal offers no designated off-street parking spaces for deliveries, servicing, customer, or staff vehicles with limited on-street parking to adequately serve the proposed change of use.
“It would lead to intensification in use of the site without providing any off-street parking and would result in an increase in on-street parking either in the turning head on Crossley Street, resulting in difficulties for vehicles to turn around, or parking on Horton Park Avenue closer to the junction with Great Horton Road raising highway safety concerns.”
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