COMMITTEE DATE: 07/05/2014
Application Reference: / 14/0103WARD: / Tyldesley
DATE REGISTERED: / 12/02/14
LOCAL PLAN ALLOCATION: / Local centre
APPLICATION TYPE: / Full Planning Permission
APPLICANT: / Aldi Stores Limited
PROPOSAL: / Erection of single storey retail store (Use Class A1) and single storey unit (Use Class A1-A5) including incorporation of existing ground floor frontage of CSL building, with vehicular access/egress from Park Road, car parking and servicing area with associated landscaping following demolition of existing buildings.
LOCATION: / LAND AT OXFORD SQUARE, BOUNDED BY PRESTON NEW ROAD, WATERLOO ROAD AND KIRKSTALL AVENUE (CSL FURNITURE SHOWROOM AND THE OXFORD HOTEL PH), BLACKPOOL
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Summary of Recommendation: / Grant PermissionCASE OFFICER
C Johnson
INTRODUCTION
The details of the application have evolved through pre-application discussions which took place in 2012. The submitted details have taken account of the concerns raised at pre-application stage and have addressed issues relating to vehicle access and parking, design, existing facade retention of the ground floor of the Sofaworks building and some landscaping issues and provided information regarding noise, land contamination, a travel plan and transport assessment, ecological and habitat surveys, retail assessment and flood risk.
SITE DESCRIPTION
This brownfield site is located on the south west corner of Oxford Square comprising of two buildings, currently known as the Oxford Public House (closed since 2009 following a number of failed re-launches and re-branding) and the Sofaworks building and associated car parking. The site occupies 0.65 hectares and the majority of the site is within a local centre as defined on the Proposals Map to the Blackpool Local Plan 2001-2016.
The Oxford Hotel and Pleasure Gardens were built in 1876 next to the Great Marton Mill on the site of the demolished Mill Inn and had a bowling green and stables.
The original appearance of the building has been eroded significantly over the years, including the removal of decorative features, removal of entrance canopy, rendering over the original brickwork etc. The building has been left vacant and in a state of disrepair despite having been granted planning permission to be used as offices (reference 11/0487) which involved demolition of the building to the rear.
The former Thomas Motors building was built as a single storey car showroom and the first floor was added in the 1950s. An adjacent building was built in 1936 to form the Oxford Cinema and this opened in 1938 and closed in 1960 when it was then acquired by Thomas Motors. In the late 1990s, Thomas Motors left the site and the site was split up; CSL Lounge Suites moved into the old car showrooms (currently trading as Sofaworks), and the Thomas Motors petrol station was bought for redevelopment and is currently known as Ivory Dental Care.
The original Thomas Motors ground floor facade was highly decorated in faience tiles with large picture windows and over the years, some decorative features have been lost or unsympathetically covered over with paint. The facade however, remains a quality frontage on a very prominent corner of one of the busiest junctions in Blackpool and a key gateway into the Town.
On the west of the site fronting Kirkstall Avenue, there is a hard surfaced area which is currently unused and is overgrown and unsightly.
The site currently has vehicle access off Park Road between the dental surgery and the Sofaworks building, quite close to the busy junction.
The area around Oxford Square is largely commercial in nature with a mixture of retail, beauty services, financial services, a social club, car hire and hot food takeaways. To the north there are residential properties fronting Whitegate Drive and Park Road, the south and east are a mixture of retail and residential and to the west are houses fronting Kirkstall Avenue. The properties which back on to the site on the east side of Kirkstall Avenue are separated from the site by a brick wall along the boundary which measures between 2 and 3.5 metres high.
DETAILS OF PROPOSAL
The application involves the demolition of all buildings within the site edged red. However, the Sofaworks building is on the Council's Local List, and given the buildings prominent location and architectural and local interest, the scheme includes the retention and refurbishment of the ground floor Sofaworks façade (former Thomas Motors showroom facade) albeit repositioned forward of its current position and located towards the back of the footpath. 92 square metres of new floorspace would be created behind the facade to retain an active frontage to the junction and it is proposed that this new 'pod' would be either an A1, A2, A3, A4 or A5 use (retail shop, office, cafe/restaurant. drinking establishment or hot food takeaway).
The development proposes a single storey retail foodstore along the south of the site where the Oxford Public House is currently sited, but projecting west towards Kirstall Avenue. The foodstore would have a gross internal floorspace of 1647 square metres with 1254 square metres of that floorspace dedicated to retail sales. The remaining 393 square metres would for staff, storage and associated office areas.
The entrance to the main foodstore would be located to the north-eastern corner of the store, facing onto the car park.
The servicing area would be positioned at the western end of the store, screened from Park Road by the existing dental surgery and from the rear of properties on Kirkstall Avenue by an existing 3.5 metre high wall and proposed landscaping.
The retail store and pod would share 101 car parking spaces, including five accessible spaces and 8 parent and child spaces. Storage for ten bicycles would also be provided.
A new vehicle access would be taken off Park Road, approximately 52 metres to the west of the current vehicle access.
As well as the relevant layout, floorspace and elevation plans, the application is accompanied by a Design and Access Statement, a Planning and Retail Statement, a Desk Study Assessment, Acoustic Assessment, Habitat and Building Survey, Flood Risk Assessment, Statement of Community Involvement and a Transport Assessment
The Committee will have visited the site on 7th May 2014.
MAIN PLANNING ISSUES
The main planning issues are considered to be:
· The principle of demolition of the existing buildings
· The principle of retail development on the site
· Highway Safety and Transportation considerations
· Residential Amenity
· Quality of Design
· Health and Safety considerations
· Ecology/ Habitat considerations
· Flood Risk
These issues will be discussed in the assessment section of this report.
CONSULTATIONS
Head of Transportation: The Transport Assessment (TA) emphasises access will predominantly be via public transport, cycling and walking as it is close to a large residential catchment, which is probably true. It also states that the need to travel by car will reduce. The summary and conclusion on page 39 of the Transport Assessment implies the majority of car trips to the food store will not be new to the highway network and will be pass-by, transferred or diverted trips. This I do not agree with.
Linsig data (signalised junction):
1. Waterloo Road/Vicarage Lane signal junction has the incorrect staging applied. Works are currently ongoing with completion in May. The overall staging of the junction will be amended when the works are complete and the Transport Assessment should have reflected the new staging arrangement.
2. The traffic flows reflect the AM and PM over an hour period. This is ok as they indicate that the site will work on a 100 second cycle time with between 4 and 5% reserve;
3. There are no flows from Whitegate Drive to Park Road due to the current right/turn ban, it may be appropriate to introduce this movement. The proposed use is likely to generate trips from different directions on the network and the store could attract vehicle movements from this approach, which is currently banned. Any banned vehicle movements undertaken could potentially lead to a unsafe situation.
4. South Park Drive is shown as having a pedestrian phase when there is none.
It would have been better for the traffic flows to have been modelled in 15 minute intervals as that would have confirmed as a true reflection whether there are any peaks within the peak hours. Also, the development of the linsig model didn't go that little bit further by adding staging diagrams and timings to show the intergreen and green split make up.
Key points are that there is no indication of what development flows are projected, this is usual for such developments. With no indication of what additional traffic is projected it is hard to make any other comments.
Picady review (store access)
Arm B is the store access, this is where there is the most delay as it is only a single lane width, if it is possible to have two lanes out (to permit left turn easy exit), it may help. I should point out that the delay is minimal, only 1 vehicle. In reality, this could be more and could potentially cause internal circulation problems within the car park at certain times.
Arm C is Park Road West, the geometry seems reasonable at 2200mm wide, although perhaps a bit tight. More than two vehicles in the queue could block the through lane, a dedicated right turn may help.
Drawing No: 070-01/GA-01 (included in TA)
The plan raises a number of questions, particularly in relation to vehicular and pedestrian access points – what is existing, what will be needed, what will be closed off and made good and the footway built up etc.
The areas put forward for footway reinstatement are acceptable and the area where partial footway reinstatement is proposed to have suitable drop kerbs for pedestrians.
The signal junction at the Oxford provides pedestrian crossing points via a mixture of controlled and uncontrolled facilities and all approaches to the signalised junctions are catered for. The same can be said at the signal junction at Waterloo Road/Vicarage Lane. Whitegate Drive benefits from a dedicated puffin crossing near the Saddle Inn and a pedestrian refuge Island in the vicinity of Honister Avenue. It would be advisable to convert the informal crossing across Park Road to a formal crossing with proper push button facilities to allow pedestrians to cross safely.
A pedestrian refuge island on Park Road to the west of the main vehicle access would help pedestrians, the obvious draws being to and from the bus stop. It would mean losing some or all of the merging length for westbound traffic, without affecting the eastbound queue length on Park Road and this arrangement must not impede traffic turning to and from the remaining unit fronting Park Rd.
Internally, the servicing area is likely to cause congestion unless deliveries are outside opening times. The lorry will have to enter the site and reverse back into the loading area, then go out in a forward gear. If however, it takes a long time to complete this manoeuvre, traffic will back up through the car park and onto Park Road, which is not good. (There are occasional queuing issues at Parkinson Way when Aldi service but the network is not as sensitive at this location.)
Please also arrange for the car park access road circulatory system to be remarked, the proposed circulatory system is a little too unconventional and 'give way' markings may assist internal circulation. Also, the pedestrians routes within the car park to be marked out as such and appropriate drop kerbs provided.
Informal paths could be created if customers decided to find a different route. If this is considered for inclusion, the adjacent parking space to be omitted and bollards introduced to prevent unauthorised vehicular access.
To summarise:
1. Cycle Parking is shown, provision to be increased and the details to be submitted for approval. The cycle parking to be covered.
2. Travel Plan, one should be conditioned.
3. Parking provision is acceptable. I have applied a 1:20 ratio (high accessibility) for the whole site and calculate the requirement of approx. 111 car parking spaces. All available space has been allocated for car parking and I do not think there is scope to increase this regardless of whether the provision meets parking standards or not.
4. The site is contained but I would prefer a Construction Management Plan to be conditioned.
5. The store and smaller 'pod' will require formal postal addresses.
6. S278 highway works required:
· raised kerbs to bus stop on Park Road, south side to the west of the store entrance.
· amended vehicle access on Park Road, to be widened from what is shown to accommodate better lane designation (tactile paving to be omitted).
· reinstatement to footway areas on Park Road and Waterloo Road.
· pedestrian refuge island on the merging lane on Park Road to include appropriate hatching with dedicated right-turn lane and/or conversion of the informal crossing on Park Road to include proper push button facilities.
· Introducing the right turn manoeuvre from Whitegate Drive into Park Road.
· Review of the signal plans for the Oxford Square junction, to ensure sufficient green time is afforded to Park Road. This review must take into account the sensitivity of the highway network in the area and any changes proposed and agreed with the Highway Authority should be the best solution available.