Planners deliver verdict on scheme to turn large house in busy area into nursery for babies and toddlers
Plans to turn a large house in a Blackburn suburb into a nursery for babies and toddlers have been rejected.
Yasmin Ahmed from Cloud 9 Kids had proposed to convert 12 Coniston Road in Little Harwood.
If approved the nursery would have provided 35 places for children aged five and under and create nine new fill-time jobs and four part-time ones.
Mrs Ahmed was also proposing to buying 10 Coniston Road next door for employees to live in and also a parcel of land on nearby Bay Street to use as a staff car park.
The plan generated seven objections from nearby residents.
They were on grounds including traffic congestion throughout the day, pedestrian safety, parking, increased noise from children playing outdoors and erosion of the residential nature of the area.
Blackburn with Darwen Council refused to grant planning permission because ‘the proposal would be detrimental to the residential amenities of the neighbouring properties by virtue of intensification and associated noise and disturbance and the proposal will lead to an intensification of the site in terms of increasing visitor numbers, and as a consequence of inadequate parking and access arrangements it would prejudice the safe, efficient and convenient movement of all highway users’.
A planning officer’s report said: “The application site relates to an end-terraced dwelling and its adjoining neighbouring dwelling positioned on the southern side of Coniston Road and at the junction with Rydal Road, Blackburn.
“At the rear are enclosed yard areas and the gable-end dwelling benefits from an integral garage accessed via the back alley.
“The nature of the locality is predominantly residential in character.
“The proposal has been amended during the course of the application process, by way of including a change of use to a parcel of vacant land accessed off Bay Street which is proposed to be used as a car park for members of staff and visitors associated with the nursery.
Public Protection raised significant noise concerns from the offset stating: ‘I believe that there is always going to be a noise impact on the area as a result of the introduction of the day nursery.
“’I do not believe that this is right place for a children’s nursery’.
“The Highways Authority have reviewed the application and offer objections on highways safety implications by virtue of insufficient parking provision.
“At the time of my site visit which was undertaken at mid-morning it was apparent that on-street capacity was saturated.”