Plans for a petrol station at an Asda supermarket in Lancashire have been refused consent by the local council.
Asda had applied for permission for a four-pump petrol filling station (PFS) and drive-to-pay kiosk at its supermarket at Holly Mount Way, Rawtenstall in Rossendale.
The PFS would have taken up space in the car park and comprised a canopy and drive-to-pay kiosk serving six filling positions and a further two filling positions would have been card-only pay-at–pump facilities.
It would have involved sacrificing 25 parking spaces from the car park leaving a total of 529 spaces. During a survey of occupancy the car park was never more than 60% full.
Entry and exit to the PFS would have been separate from supermarket.
The decision was taken by council planning officers, and in their decision document they said: “The proposed development is of a form which would cause unacceptable harm to the setting of the nearby Conservation Area and of Holly Mount House, a Grade II-listed building.
“It is not considered that the public benefits of the proposed development outweigh the harm that would be caused.”
In a report on the plans, Rossendale Council’s conservation officer Sebastian Pickles criticised the “standard design and finish” of the planned canopy and pointed out an example where Asda had added timber to the canopy to reduce the visual impact.
He said the kiosk was “of poor design and finish” and would appear “alien and out of context to the area”.
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