Wiltshire Council planning officers have given the go-ahead for the opening of a Rick Stein restaurant at Lloran House in Marlborough High Street.
The decision was taken on Friday (January 29) and carries very few conditions – mainly relating to noise, ventilation, a grease trap, signage, odour sand waste collection.
To limit noise nuisance from the restaurant its opening hours will be restricted to 11.00am to 11.00pm on Mondays to Fridays, 10.00am to 11.00pm on Saturdays and 10.00am to 10.00pm on Sundays. A drinks licence for the restaurant has already been granted.
When this application was considered by Marlborough Town Council’s planning committee in December it was given ‘enthusiastic approval’. But, as Marlborough News Online reported, five residents from the houses in Old Lion Court – right behind Lloran House – expressed anxieties about the plans.
At that Planning Committee meeting their town councillor, Nick Fogg, said he would ‘call in’ the application to enable the protestors to address their concerns to unitary councillors on Wiltshire Council Eastern Planning Committee.
Later Councillor Fogg changed his mind: “Marlborough Town Council, in accepting the Rick Stein application, asked that certain clauses be added to the regulations. I spoke subsequently to the Wiltshire Planning Department, which included these in their recommendation.”
“Since what had been requested had been accepted, I saw no point in bringing this to the committee for further discussion.”
One resident of Old Lion Court told Marlborough News Online: “None of us object to having a restaurant of the quality of Rick Stein’s restaurants in Marlborough. But we are still concerned about unresolved issues such as noise, traffic and especially waste disposal.”
The restaurant is expected to open in the middle of the year.
Interestingly the Wiltshire Council papers attached to the planning application – and considered by planning officers – include the Planning Inspector’s decision (February 2013) on Caffe Nero’s appeal against a Wiltshire Council enforcement notice for breach of planning controls after change of use from retail to coffee bar was made before planning permission had been granted.
This Appeal Decision has interesting analysis of the retail make-up of the High Street and considers whether the change from retail in the Caffe Nero case affected the High Street’s ‘vitality and viability.’