Demolition plans for car restoration business in Staffordshire village to make way for housing
Plans have been lodged to demolish commercial buildings used as a car restoration and storage business and redevelop the area for nine homes.
The Trysull based business, which has been operating since 2003 says that recent economic shocks including energy and employment costs is making the business ‘increasingly less viable’.
The proposal forresidential development would include a mixture of four, five and six-bedroom homes. If the application is refused, the applicants state that the fall back option would be an intensification of operations at the site.
The site is located in the greenbelt which would normally mean development would not be approved unless exceptional circumstances apply. However as the land has previously been developed, South Staffordshire District Council and the applicant are in agreement that the land should be categorised as greybelt.
New access is proposed to be created off Feiashill Road to improve the current ‘dangerous’ access off Gorse Lane, in which vehicles would need to make a 180-degree turn to enter the site. The developer states that it is expected that a small number of trips would be generated with the residential use compared to the existing commercial use.
South Staffordshire Council currently has just 0.87 years of deliverable housing supply. Under national planning policy, this creates a presumption in favour of sustainable development unless harm clearly outweighs the benefits.
It is expected that the car restoration business will move elsewhere in the district, however new premises will not be found until approval is given to the redevelopment. Currently the car restoration business employs one person.
Planning documents state: “The whole of the application site has been in continual commercial use for many years. Regrettably, however, both of the businesses which are based at the site have fallen victim to deteriorating market conditions and have, lamentably, become increasingly unviable in their current form.
“The provision of new homes on the site would not fundamentally undermine the purposes (taken together) of the remaining greenbelt across the area of the local plan, that there is a demonstrable unmet need for the type of development proposed, that the development would be in a sustainable location.”
The application and all supporting documents can be viewed on South Staffordshire District Council’s planning portal, reference number 25/01118/OUT. The application is currently under consideration by planning officers.
