Planning permission has been submitted to Flintshire County Council to demolish a defunct café in North Wales and construct a new filling station in its place.
The half-acre site sits by Junction 31 of the A55 near Caerwys, roughly 20 miles to the west of Chester. Long Acres is seeking to demolish the Dragon’s Rest Café, which ceased trading in 2023, constructing a 2,400sq ft shop with an attached 860sq ft café, alongside a four-pump-island forecourt. Also included in the plans are 39 parking spaces, with 10 of these earmarked for EV charging.
Rather than complete a full planning application, Long Acres Filing Station has requested Flintshire to provide a Screening Opinion, which would determine if a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) would be required for the development.
Long Acres’ planning consultants have told the council they believe an EIA may not be needed for the development for a number of reasons, including the fact that the site is not in a sensitive area, such as a National Park or World Heritage Site, while also highlighting that the land is more than 100 metres away from Controlled Waters.
Being under half a hectare in size also supports the potential exemption from an EIA, while the consultants say that only approximately 60 tonnes of petroleum will be stored once the station is completed; this is equivalent to roughly 6,000 litres of fuel, well below the 200-tonne limit that would see a development classified as Schedule 2 under EIA regulations.
