South Tyneside Council has refused a planning application to turn a car park in Jarrow into a car wash and valeting centre.
The proposed site is in Jarrow town centre, close to the roundabout junction of Ellison Street/Western Road/Ormonde Street.
The Council gave two reasons for rejecting the plans. The first was due to the noise generated by the proposal from jet washing, valeting equipment and general comings and goings taken together with the close proximity of the site to residential properties, which would result in “significant harm to the residential amenity of the occupiers of those nearby dwellings”. The Council had received 13 letters of objection from 12 addresses nearby.
Noise mitigation measures included in the applicant’s submitted Noise Assessment include screening structures which would require planning permission in their own right but the Council says these have not been included on the application plans nor have details been provided as to the siting of such structures and modelling of their noise mitigation effectiveness has not been undertaken. “As such it is not considered that the matter of noise mitigation can be addressed by means of a planning condition,” it said.
The second reason for refusal was because of the prospect of vehicles queuing across the site access on Ellison Street as well as on Ellison Street itself. “The proposal would have an unacceptable impact on highway safety for both vehicles and pedestrians,” the Council said.
