Middlesbrough Council has refused planning permission for EG On The Move to construct a new drive-thru coffee shop at its Roseberry filling station on Acklam Road in the Yorkshire town.
The firm wanted to build a 1,700sq ft 24-hour coffee shop with a drive-thru lane adjacent to the forecourt, which opened earlier this year and already hosts Greggs and Sbarro pizza concessions, but planning authorities identified significant issues with the latest proposals.
The council described the plans as having a “poor design and layout”, and considered that the coffee shop would cause “adverse issues with parking”.
Perhaps the council’s key motivator for refusing the bid was its assessment of the nature of the site. While being on an A road, the Roseberry forecourt is in a largely residential area, while the drive-thru lane, which would have bordered three sides of the café, would have been set very close to one neighbouring residential property in particular.
Middlesborough Council highlighted that this would have “significant adverse impacts on the residential amenity, while also finding that EG On The Move had not followed ‘sequential assessment’ during its application. This requires developers to explain why one location was selected for a project above potential alternatives.
