People and organisations interested in making representations for consideration by the inspector who will decide the appeal against refusal of planning permission for development at the Willow Brook Centre have until Wednesday this week (21st August) to submit their written statements.

The appealed decision relates to 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 Bradley Stoke town centre site.

The deadline comes five weeks after the appeal was officially lodged and validated in mid-July.

The appellant originally requested that the appeal be determined by way of a hearing, and the case officer at the Planning Inspectorate initially announced that this would indeed be the procedure used. However, in a letter dated 7th August, she explained that, after further consideration, the alternative procedure of ‘written representations’ would now be used as a hearing could not be justified:

“…We have applied the criteria and considered all representations received, including the appellant’s preferred choice. We consider that the written representations procedure is the most suitable for this appeal for the following reason(s): Under section 319a of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the inspector having reviewed all evidence has stated that although there are a lot of interested parties, the issues are not particularly complicated and the council have indicated that they will not be submitting anything very technical, therefore a hearing is not justified and this appeal will now proceed by way of written representation…”

More: Inspector will visit site after 4th September »

Share this article:

Discussion is open - be the first to comment - click here to respond.

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.

Share this article:

Discussion is open - 2 comments (view) - click here to respond.

Proposals for two new 24-hour drive-through food units and new retail space at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook Centre have been refused permission by councillors for a second time.

South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) Spatial Planning Committee, meeting at Brook Way Activity Centre on 19th March, had been tasked with “re-evaluating” the application after councillors on a lower-level committee had ignored the case officer’s recommendation and refused permission by five votes to two.

The proposals have proved controversial because of the proximity of the drive-through units to residential properties in Wheatfield Drive, with the single-storey Starbucks being just 22m away from the nearest dwelling. The adjacent two-storey McDonald’s building would be 50m distant.

Further concerns had been expressed over the plans to realign the main access road into the Willow Brook Centre, which would bring it much closer to the rear of residential properties in Dewfalls Drive.

In a re-run of the previous meeting, a packed hall first heard from the applicant’s agent who said the proposals represented a “significant investment” that would “enhance the vitality and viability of the centre” and create 85 full- and part-time jobs.

Although an earlier ‘acoustic report’ submitted by the applicant indicated that there would be no significant increase in night-time noise associated with the food units, the agent indicated that they would be prepared to accept a condition restricting the opening hours of the food units to 6am-11pm for Starbucks and 6am-midnight (Sun-Thu) / 6am-1am (Fri & Sat) for McDonald’s.

Opponents of the scheme were then given a chance to speak, including Steve Moir (headteacher at Bradley Stoke Community School) who said the proximity of the fast food units would add to the “challenges and temptations” faced by students and undermine teaching on healthy lifestyles.

More: Refusal based on South Glos and national planning policies »

Share this article:

Discussion is open - 1 comment (view) - click here to respond.

Councillors on South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) Spatial Planning Committee (SPC) will meet in Bradley Stoke on Tuesday afternoon (19th March) to “re-evaluate” a controversial planning application for new development at the town’s Willow Brook shopping centre.

The proposed scheme, which includes two new drive-through food units expected to be occupied by McDonald’s and Starbucks, had been recommended for approval by the council’s planning officers but was turned down by its Development Management Committee (DMC) at a meeting on 21st February. The DMC had previously met in January to consider the application, but deferred a decision to allow a site inspection visit to take place.

Residents of properties in Wheatfield Drive and Dewfalls Drive object to the scheme, saying that the drive-through units should be built closer to the existing main buildings at the centre, in keeping with its original design ethos. The closest property in Wheatfield Drive would be 22m distant from the single-storey Starbucks unit and 50m from the two-storey McDonald’s building

The DMC’s reasons for refusal were minuted as:

“That 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.”

In view of the DMC’s decision to overturn the officer recommendation, the application has automatically been referred to the SPC, which is a larger committee of 26 members, from which the nine members of the DMC are drawn.

The SPC must deal with the application de novo, i.e. it is not a review of the DMC decision, but a full determination.

More: Only nine members will take part in the SPC meeting on Tuesday »

Share this article:

Discussion is open - 7 comments (view) - click here to respond.