A planning application to continue using a private car park in Oldfield Park to sell hot food every day has been withdrawn.
The site at Lorne Road | Image © Google Street View / Google 2024
In July Cyril Catering Ltd submitted a retrospective application to Bath & North East Somerset Council to change the site at Lorne Road to a mixed use of car park and to station a hot food takeaway vehicle.
The ‘King Grill’ van began selling burgers, wraps and chips from the car park at the start of May.
Although the car park is accessed from Lorne Road, it is on the corner of Brougham Hayes and Lower Bristol Road.
It is leased to a local employer from 6am to 5pm, Mondays to Fridays, and has nine spaces which are sometimes rented out separately at weekends too.
The planning application said the mobile food van would be operated from the site between 5pm and 11pm Monday to Friday and between noon and 11pm at weekends.
The generator was described as “super-quiet” and the application also said that all waste would be removed daily.
The applicant said there was unlikely to be an impact on people living nearby and that the vast majority of customers could and would travel by sustainable methods.
Independent councillor for Westmoreland ward, June Player, had voiced concerns and asked that the case be referred to committee for detailed scrutiny in the event of the planning officer recommending approval.
She was worried about the negative impact in such a densely populated area, with residents already having enough noise issues to contend with.
She also highlighted the impact of extra traffic, smells and the noise from gulls, who might swoop and attack customers for food.
Although the application mentioned that the car park is bound to the north and east by landscaping, Councillor Player said: “I have to disagree with there being any landscaping here because all the greenery and hedgerow that did used to be here, and which did lessen the look of this unattractive car park, and screened it somewhat, was bulldozed down at the end of January this year.”
She added: “I would like to point out that a few years ago, larger trees were felled here and due to the site being outside the Conservation Area of Bath, these trees sadly did not benefit from statutory protection.
“The recent hedge removal has further facilitated potential development at the expense of integrated green infrastructure.
“The loss of this greenery has exposed this car park and resulted in it now standing out like a sore thumb.”
