Agenda item

Construction of drive-thru Burger King and Papa Johns with associated parking.

The Committee considered a report of the Planning Officer regarding an application for the construction of a drive-thru Burger King and Papa Johns with associated parking at Tesco Extra, Abraham Enterprise Park, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland (for copy see file of Minutes).

M O’Sullivan, Planning Officer gave a detailed presentation on the application which included a site location plan, aerial photograph, photographs of the car park taken on 10 April, site layout plan and elevations.

Councillor C Wilson, local Member, addressed the Committee to object to the application.  Councillor Wilson informed the Committee that she was a resident of the area and lived not far from the application site.

The area had been trying to attract a cinema development on the other side of the road to this proposed development and it would be preferable for all eateries to be on the same site as any cinema development.  Papa John’s and Burger King had already signed up to the proposed cinema site and Councillor Wilson expressed concern that this development may compromise any development on the cinema site.

Councillor Wilson informed the Committee that she could not agree with the traffic assessment as outlined in the report, which had been carried out on an Easter weekend when people would have been away.  The volume of traffic in the area was horrendous with traffic often backing onto the roundabout and blocking the road.  If the development was on the same site as any cinema development, this would help traffic to flow more smoothly.

Councillor Wilson left the meeting.

Councillor Tinsley informed the Committee that he was a representative of an adjacent Ward and used this shopping complex regularly.  He agreed with Councillor Wilson’s comments about how busy traffic was in the area.  This development would result in the removal of 70 car parking spaces from the Tesco car park and provide 13 spaces, a net loss of 57 car parking spaces.  When permission was granted for the Tesco store at this site in 2010 a standard of 1 car parking space per 15m² had been used and this standard was confirmed in 2014.  If this application was agreed then there would be significantly fewer car parking spaces than required by this standard.

Councillor Tinsley expressed concern at paragraph 37 of the report which suggested that the level of traffic generated by the development would not be significant because visits to the food outlets would be connected to trips already being made to shops in the area.  However, Councillor Tinsley informed the Committee that food outlets as proposed in this application were often destination outlets in their own right.  He considered that the area was being developed on an ad hoc basis.

Councillor Brown asked whether any mitigation or condition was proposed for possible problems caused by litter from the food outlets.

Councillor Richardson informed the Committee that he knew this area well.  Although Saturday tended to be the worst day for traffic in the area, he had experienced traffic backed on to the roundabout on his way to the meeting today.  He considered that this development would only exacerbate traffic problems in the area.

Councillor Clare informed the Committee it would be difficult to refuse the application on highways grounds, given the comments of the Council’s highways officers in the report.  He asked how much weight could be given to the car parking standard referred to by Councillor Tinsley.  While acknowledging the concern that the development may impact on the future development of any cinema, the Committee could not determine an application on what might happen.

The Planning Officer informed the Committee that litter bins would be provided on site and users of the site would be encouraged to use these.  However, litter picking could not be controlled by condition because there would be a need to specify the area it would apply to and also each outlet might only pick up their own litter.  Advice of highways officers had been sought on both traffic levels and car parking space and no objections had been raised.

Mr J McGargill, Highway Development Manager addressed the Committee on parking and traffic issue raised.  The parking and access standards of 1 car parking space per 15m² of floorspace were guidance only.  It was appropriate to consider the number of car parking spaces and occupancy levels.  The development would result in the loss of 70 car parking spaces for the Tesco store, however, at the time of the survey which was carried out, there were between 150 and 200 spare spaces in the car park.  Car parks operated well up to 90% capacity and it was estimated that ta peak demand the car park would realise an occupancy level of between 80% and 90%.

The Highway Development Manager referred to the number of trips which would be generated by this development.  The transport statement estimated that at its peak would generate 56 trips.  However, not all of these would be new trips as many would be link trips from another facility in the area.  Research carried out by a consortium of traffic consultants and local authorities had found that very little new traffic was generated by developments such as this because most people were already in the area and were not new to the highway network.  Only 10% of the 56 trips to this development would be new trips, which equated.  This would result in 6 extra trips.  A level of 10 extra trips would not be considered to be significant and would be considered to be within expected variations.

The Highway Development Manager acknowledged that problems were created at the Tindale Crescent junction but added that the County Council was trying to address these with the developers.

Moved by Councillor Clare, Seconded by Councillor Atkinson and

Resolved:

That the application be approved subject to the Conditions contained in the report.

Councillor Wilson re-joined the meeting.