Costa Coffee plans given the go ahead

by Lisa Reeves

Tuesday 31^st July 2012

Tue 31^st Jul 2012

The UK's largest and fastest growing coffee shop brand is set to open a branch in Wilmslow.

Costa Coffee will be taking over the unit previously occupied by Wildings camera shop, which closed down twelve months ago.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Whitbread PLC has been granted permission for the change of use of the ground floor at 1-3 Alderley Road from retail (A1) to a mixed use coffee shop. Plans to make alterations to the shop front and create an outdoor seating area have also been approved.

The coffee shop, trading on the ground floor of the premises, will have facilities for takeaway purchases as well as consumption on the premises and will therefore contain a mixture of A1 and A3 uses.

The hours of operation of the business shall be limited to 6.30am to 7.30pm on Monday to Saturday and 7.30am to 6.30pm on Sundays or public holidays.

The planning application states "Costa are very keen to locate within Wilmslow and have identified the application site as being particularly suitable for the proposed development.

"The forecourt of the premises lends itself very well to an outdoor seating area and will create an attractive, welcome and active frontage to one of the main approaches to Wilmslow town centre.

"Enjoying a coffee break whilst visiting shopping or visiting a town centre is now considered to be part of the shopping experience. The provision of coffee shops actively encourages people to stay longer in the area and visit other shops, thereby increasing spend in the area."

The new Costa Coffee shop will create approximately 8 new jobs, a mixture of full and part time.

You can view the application on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for reference 12/1760M.

Tags:: Planning Applications

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Kenneth Williams

Tuesday 31^st July 2012 at 4:25 pm

Love it, you can never have too many coffee shops!

Marianne Martyn

Wednesday 1^st August 2012 at 8:13 am

The right type of shops will do well in Wilmslow and will tempt shoppers to linger longer looking at other shops and perhaps buy more locally..

Chris Wigley

Thursday 2^nd August 2012 at 10:26 am

I am sure that the news of a new coffee shop will bring in masses of new customers to Wilmslow where they will feast their eyes on the unique attraction of the town Banks, Building Societies, Easteries and Charity Shop..............and other coffee shops.

The only good thing that has happened to Wilmslow in the past few years is the Artisan Market which makes up for the dismal offering that the town centre has to offer customers.

Steve Savage

Thursday 2^nd August 2012 at 12:22 pm

Is Costa taking over the world?? Driving past the Unicorn pub, I noticed that they now sell their coffee, as does the shell garage next door....soon we will have a costa outlet on every street corner.

Thursday 2^nd August 2012 at 2:45 pm

Perhaps our brilliant council will sell off the Leisure Centre and allow a mega Costa Coffee to be built there!

Thursday 2^nd August 2012 at 3:00 pm

I think Chris may be on to something here. Imagine the size of the outside seating area!

Thursday 2^nd August 2012 at 6:53 pm

Good to see some of us with a sense of humour - I see your point...;-)

Anthony Jones

Sunday 12^th August 2012 at 9:32 pm

Its good to have one less empty shop. However, I was somewhat concerned to read that there were plans to create a new sitting area outside Costa Coffee. There is already a sitting area with attractive planters provided by Incredible Edible and Transition Wilmslow. The bench, which is a very solidly made and comfortable, was repainted by Transition Wilmslow last year. It has been delightful to see so many people of all ages enjoying this space. I hope that this area is not going to be given over entirely to Costa Coffee at the expense of those who are not customers. Big society needs to be a two way process.