As metaphors for the industry go, a petrol station changing into a car showroom many years ago, only for a 2025 planning application to seek to turn it back into a PFS, is pretty apt.
That could be the trajectory for a site in Newport, Wales, after documents were submitted to the local council applying to turn a workshop and used-car lot back into a petrol station, after the car business ceased trading on the site and relocated to a nearby industrial estate.
The developers say the forecourt would have a new “like for like” replacement canopy installed, together with three pump islands and a convenience store.
The site sits on a busy road in Rogerstone, west Newport, just 0.2 miles from a Texaco filling station on the opposite side of the road. The application argues reinstating the old filling station would improve traffic flows as “the garage on the other side of the road will have traffic going against the flow to pull out”.
The site has been owned by the same family since the 1970s, and historic planning documents reveal a submission was made in 1991 to install a pole sign for the petrol station, though the site traded as a workshop and car sales business for many years.
Newport City Council has yet to make a decision on the request to turn the site back into a petrol station, but the local highways authority “would recommend refusal on grounds of failure to demonstrate no harm”.
The highways authority argues that “the application is not clear, complete or sufficiently detailed”, and that the issues raised with vehicles having to turn right out of the filling station on the opposite side of the road “would also apply to this one”. Highways also says no assessment of parking needs has been made, nor have swept-path assessments been conducted for HGVs.
One nearby resident welcomed the plans, however, saying that “since the car sales and MOT station ceased trading, we have experienced fly tipping and fires within the building on several occasions”. The local added that the petrol station was “used by ourselves over 45 years ago”, and they “would be happy for the site to be a petrol station and shop”.
