The “harm” an electric-car charging station and drive-through restaurant would do to an area of Green Belt has seen developers refused planning permission following an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
In June 2024 Stafford Borough Council turned down the proposals from George Developments, arguing that building a 31-bay EV charging station and drive-through fast-food restaurant on land opposite the George and Dragon pub on the A34 outside the village of Meaford would “unacceptably harm the openness of the North Staffordshire green belt in both visual and spatial terms.”
The council also said building a charging hub and restaurant on what is currently an open field would “result in a significant urban encroachment” on the rural area, while arguing the plans failed to “demonstrate how the site can be safely accessed by sustainable travel”. More than 160 objections had been lodged against the plans.
George Developments subsequently lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate, but the authority sided with the council, finding that while the station and restaurant would be “surrounded by hedges and trees” the development would nonetheless “not preserve the openness of the Green Belt”.
The Inspectorate also said that while an EV charging hub could constitute local transport infrastructure, thus possibly being allowed on Green Belt land, the combined hub and restaurant would not, partly because “there is nothing persuasive to suggest the drive through restaurant is dependant on the provision of the charging points”.
The developers had argued that the land, which abuts the River Trent, was of poor landscape character, but the Inspectorate said that while there is “nothing remarkable about this landscape”, it nonetheless forms “part of the rural character of the open countryside on this side of the road”.
