Plans have been approved to allow a pizza takeaway and delivery business to open a branch in Wilmslow despite objections from local residents.
Papa Johns have been granted planning permission to change the use of the unit at 88 Chapel Lane, formally occupied by Motrax Motor Accessories, to a hot food takeaway unit including associated external alterations.
Around 20 residents objected, raising concerns that Chapel Lane is already very busy, there are already two takeaways opposite, the proposal would add more noise and traffic until late at night and there are already road safety problems on the road which is near to a local primary school.
Wilmslow Police objected regarding the proposed opening hours (11am to 11pm Sundays to Thursdays and 11am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays).
They wrote "The proposed opening hours until midnight on Saturdays and until 23:00 Sundays Fridays have the potential to allow the encouragement of anti-social behaviour due to the proposal's close proximity to two public houses and a park.
"This would likely have a negative impact on local residents in a populated residential area. Opening hours restricted to 21:00 would likely limit this issue."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
- This is a planning application to allow food to be sold from these premises. It is the premises that have been approved to sell food, it is not a judgment on the type of food to be sold. This pizza restaurant could close down in six months time and become a vegan food restaurant instead.
- I doubt the police objection is real and suspect it is a fake comment. Cheshire Police do not usually comment on planning matters as they do not see this as part of their role. They do comment on Licencing Applications though because the legal framework regards them as the expert opinion on these matters. However, this is done through their legal team based in Macclesfield and not from Wilmslow Police Station as the anonymised objection on the planning portal proports to comes from. Finally, the police will know that this approval DOES NOT allow the pizza restaurant to operate past 11pm. To do this requires a Late Night Refreshment licence, which the police will be able to comment on and stop if they can demonstrate late night problems in the area.
- The Highways expert rightly said this premise is already a shop. Shops attract customers and it is unlikely a shop selling pizza will attract more customers than a shop selling something else eg newspapers and sweets. Therefore, the effect on traffic is negligible.
- Pizza is mostly sold at night, well after all the pupils at a St Anne’s school have gone home.
- The Indian food restaurant Chutney Masala is opposite and stays open till 11pm to sell curry. How can the council allow this but not a pizza restaurant? Do people fight more over pizza than curry?
- Domino’s in Wilmslow stays open to 5am. It is surrounded by pubs and bars but I am not aware this is a flashpoint for trouble. If it were, the police could stop its late night operating licence.
- Chapel Lane is a retail centre. Where are restaurants supposed to operate from, if not retail areas? There are now three restaurants on Chapel Lane, which is hardly a saturation of takeaways.
- Selling pizza is a legal activity. Cheshire East and its Planning department are not the food police. Where would it end if we were – would we have to ban the Peter Herd bakery from selling high fat, high sugar cakes too? Or is pizza uniquely unhealthy? Ultimately, it is consumer choice that decides these things.
Therefore, I hope this helps explain why this application was approved.
Around the corner from Chapel Lane, I understand the intended licenced deli/cafe on South Oak Lane with the intrusive decking and cladding that was so contentious is now becoming a dog grooming parlour instead. The cladding has also been removed after it was refused retrospective planning permission by Cheshire East.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Wilmslow West & Chorley
I have no objection to the change of use, but I did raise concerns about Highways safety with regard to the delivery vehicles (twice daily) as follows:
"I have concerns about the size and type of vehicle that they are proposing to use for deliveries. This area is already congested and the type and size of vehicle would have to park on Cliffford Road due to the existing on street parking arrangements. The vehicles would then have to reverse back on to Chapel Lane to exit Clifford road as there is inadequate turning space. They are also talking about customer parking to the front and side, and the existing kerb arrangements do not meet this provision and these too would most likely have to reverse onto Chapel Lane when using the front parking spaces"
My concerns were not addressed in the officer's report.
I just hope that I'm proved wrong. We will just have to wait and see.
Mark Goldsmith refers to Chapel Lane as a “retail centre” , which it is not. It’s a residential road with some individual shops , run as small , independent businesses , and a local pub.
Some of Marks comments are factually correct, but what he and the planners fail to do on our behalf is exercise BALANCE in these decisions. Chapel Lane is a great place, busy, and full of character , with a mixture of residential property and shops. An almost unique combination these days, but it needs protection. A large Pizza chain couldn’t care less about how fragile the quality of the Lane is. We,ll see a great big, ugly sign, and the concerns of locals and police will follow soon.
Nothing will be done, and the fragile quality of the area will go down a notch.
The South Oak Lane debacle was mad, and the right result followed, especially for the local neighbours who had to live with it.
BALANCE please Mark, you should cycle amongst the potholes of Chapel Lane at the moment and see what we mean about how fragile the place is.
I understand your frustrations with the outcome but Cheshire East simply does not have the power to do what you want. Planning Law is set by Parliament and demands that local opinions on things such as "balance" and "fragility" are totally ignored. The only way they allow an application to be refused is on strict planning grounds.
As I have illustrated, the planning reasons to refuse are severely lacking. The premises is already a shop and lories of any size can already deliver there. This has not been an issue before during the decades it has been a shop, so there are no grounds to think it will be an issue going forward.
Chapel Lane is classed as a Tier 2 retail area in all the town planning documents including the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan. This puts it on a par with the Summerfields shopping area and Cheshire East has almost no ability to decide which retailers can trade in either of these areas.
If this particular application was refused, then it would almost certainly be allowed on appeal to the Planning Inspector. They would also award costs to Papa Johns because there are so few planning reasons to refuse it. Essentially, Cheshire East would be fined for not following the governments rules. So, I understand your concerns but you are shooting the messenger.
If you want the council to have the abilities you describe then Parliament will have to change the law. To do that, you are best visiting the constituency office of Esther McVey MP a few doors down on Chapel Lane. The government have long promised planning reform, have floated several ideas on how to do it but unfortunately have then withdrawn them all.
business will create? Doubtful, so an American franchise calls the shots and IT decides what we must tolerate, not us.
One thing I don’t get, is Chapel Lane is a tier 2 retail area , same as
Summerfields. Something wrong there, surely? Summerfields is a purpose built shopping mall .
Chapel Lane was built predominantly for residential homes with a few shops and businesses added through time. Not the same.
We,ll see how it goes,… I hope I,m wrong.
A couple of points
Papa Johns's is a franchise - so it may be a small business that has decided to open as a franchise.
Loads of people usually complain that a new business is opening where a once loved business closed. Small Local Businesses are usually closed because not enough locals go in, for whatever reason. (I know I didn't go to Motorax that much, maybe once a year).
Finally.
All the people who complain on a regular basis about the shop not being the "type of shop' they want. Simply go ahead and open the shop you want. No one is not stopping you.
Shop Local. Support Local Business. Be Positive!
Planning Application's judge the building, not the applicant. Therefore, the question being asked of the planning department is “Can this building be used to prepare and sell hot food?”. Parliament says the type of food, the scale and nationality of the business owners or whether the local public disapprove or not, is all irrelevant in answering this question.
The two buildings opposite are takeaways, so why is this building any different? It isn't really, so there is a clear precedent to allow it.
Planning Application’s are not a public consultations either. Instead the public can mention relevant planning reasons to refuse (or allow) the application. This means all planning reasons are considered in the final decision but not peoples feelings.
Chapel Lane is not a Conservation Area either, nor does it have a large number of takeaways, both of which would give the council more controls over usage and signage. Other laws exist to control litter, anti-social behaviour and deliveries if they become a problem with whoever operates within this building. However, they are separate laws from planning laws.
Therefore, the planning officer had little option but to approve this application.
Councils everywhere are having difficulty recruiting planning officers because it is largely a thankless task. Planning law is hugely complex and leaves most people baffled and frustrated by it all. The public then blame those administrating the system, but not the system itself.
Which is why I think the planning laws desperately need reforming. But until that happens, it is up to me as your local Councillor to explain why controversial planning decisions were made and why local opinion was ignored.
Planning guidance says that retail areas with 40 units or more, should have no more than 10% hot food takeaways. Where there are less than 40 units, hot food takeaways must make up no more than 15% of the units.
Therefore, the council can stop Chapel Lane from becoming a curry mile but the 3 takeaways currently there do not get close to these limits.
As I said before, planning proposals are not an invitation to gauge public support. They are an opportunity to mention the key planning laws and principles that govern the application.
Sandwich shops have a planning use classification of “E”, which is the same as most retail shops.
Takeaways are classed as “Sui Generis” though (it’s Latin for “a class of their own”). Therefore, this application was to change the buildings use from class "E" to class "Sui Generis" as a takeaway.
So, while I like your lateral thinking, unfortunately sandwich shops don’t count as takeaways. But it does mean that a record of the number of takeaways in Chapel Lane is recorded and can be used to limit the number of shops allowed to convert into takeaways in the future.
However, as you point out, we haven't reached that threshold yet.