Willow Brook lodges appeal against “McDonald’s & Starbucks” planning refusal

Willow Brook Centre: Planning appeal lodged.

Agents acting on behalf of Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook shopping centre have lodged an appeal against South Gloucestershire Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for two new drive-through food and drink units (foreseen to be occupied by McDonald’s and Starbucks) and two new retail units at the town centre site.

The controversial planning application, submitted in March 2018, was first denied permission by the local authority’s Development Management Committee in February 2019 and then again in March 2019 by the higher-level Spatial Planning Committee.

Officers at South Gloucestershire Council had originally recommended that the application be approved, but it was ‘called in’ for a decision to be made by council members.

An appeal application form dated 28th June 2019 has recently been published on the council’s planning portal, however, at the time of writing, it has not yet appeared as a live case on the Planning Inspectorate website.

The applicant has requested that the appeal be determined by way of a hearing (which the Journal understands would be open to the press and public).

The Spatial Planning Committee’s grounds for refusing the application, which will be scrutinised by the appointed planning inspector, were:

The proposed development, if permitted, would result in a harmful concentration of food and drink uses resulting in a prejudicial impact on residential amenity due to noise, general disturbance, fumes, smells, and late night activity. The proposed development is therefore contrary to policy PSP8 and PSP35 of the South Gloucestershire Local Plan: Policies, Sites and Places Plan (Adopted) November 2017.

Furthermore, the application is contrary to the three objectives in paragraph 8 of the National Planning Policy Framework (February 2019) in that the development fails to promote the economic, social and environmental character of the area.

To read the full history of the case, visit our Planning Applications of Note page or the archive of posts with the PT18/1491/O tag.

UPDATE (29th July 2019)

The Planning Inspectorate case reference is APP/P0119/W/19/3232136.

The deadline for statements and interested party comments is 21st August 2019.

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2 comments

  1. Call for a referendum, these councillors do not speak for me. The complainants act like they are the majority but there are many who support the growth of the area.

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