Planners consider new take-away for Sutton retail park
The owners of a retail park in Sutton in Ashfield are asking district planners for permission to convert part of a unit into a restaurant and take-away. The BBC Pension Trust, which owns the Broad Centre in Station Road, Sutton, want to subdivide Unit B, which is currently home to a Poundland store.
In a letter to planners, the BBC’s consultants, Burnett Planning & Development Ltd, say that planning permission isn’t required to subdivide the unit or to use part of it as a restaurant. Current permissions would allow the site to be used as a “restaurant or café where the consumption of food and drink is mostly undertaken on the premises”, they say. “The permitted use would allow hot food takeaway sales as part of a restaurant / cafe use provided that the takeaway element was not the predominant element.”
But that say that many national restaurant operators now require a full mixed restaurant / hot-food takeaway consent “because, particularly due to the increase in the use of online home delivery services in recent years, their trade is more balanced between eat-in and take-away and there is no clear predominant use.
“While the need for planning permission in this case is marginal given that restaurant use with a non-predominant take-away element is already permitted, the application responds to the changing nature of the restaurant market and seeks to confirm that a restaurant use with a broadly even mix of eat-in and takeaway will be allowed.”
The changed permission would “allow the premises to be marketed to a wider range of restaurant operators, reflecting up to date requirements in the food / drink sector”, they say.
If planning permission is granted and a tenant found, a further planning application would be made for any external alterations that may be required once tenant requirements are confirmed.
