Decision looms on future of "dirty and badly lit" former Penwortham Indian restaurant site

Despite 25 letters of objection, including one from Penwortham Town Council, planning bosses at South Ribble have told committee members to give the scheme the green light.

Applicant CCPI Ltd wants to replace the building - that started off life as the Plough Inn and has been vacant since 2019 - with a single storey building comprising of three retail units and a hot food takeaway.

>>>Click here to read more about the application and the site's background.

The proposed building would front the north-south stretch of Pope Lane and would have a height of 4.7m. It would be constructed in a mixture of red brick and metallic silver cladding, as well as glazed unit frontages.

It is proposed to retain the existing shared access on to Pope Lane and use it to serve a 15-space customer car park. An existing shared access on to Woodville Road would be widened to the rear to provide a one-way service/delivery access, with the exit point to be newly formed onto the western-eastern stretch of Pope Lane.

The applicant states the proposal would “result in an improvement in the general appearance of the site and would safeguard the future of the Kingsfold local Centre.”

Representations made in favour say the current site is “dirty, badly lit and attracting crime”, and that reasons in favour outweigh the reasons against.

>>>Click here to read about the closure of the Shampan.

But objectors say the character and design is out of scale with the surroundings, it would cause overlooking and a loss of privacy to neighbouring properties, the proposed servicing and delivery access/egress points are “inappropriate and unsafe”, there is insufficient and substandard off-street parking, potential for noise and odours as well as anti-social behaviour attracted by the proposed hot food takeaway. They are also concerned baout disturbance issues during demolition and construction.

In conclusion, South Ribble’s planning officers state: “The proposed development would not be out of character with the local area and there are no highway safety or neighbour amenity issues raised by County Highways or Environmental Health”, adding that it conforms to policies.

A final decision will be made on Thursday.