Marlborough Town Council’s planning committee has rejected the planning application for signage on Cancer Research UK’s new charity shop on the High Street – in the premises that used to be Kitchenmonger.
In a close vote, four councillors voted to object to the proposed changes to the shop-front, three voted in favour of allowing them and there were two abstentions.
Some councillors did not like the look of the signs or the materials with which they were made.
They eventually decided they objected on the grounds that the designs for a fascia sign and one externally lit hanging sign in the charity’s blue and with its logo, were ‘not in keeping’ with the High Street.
The committee’s discussion around this planning application was as much concerned with the increasing number of charity shops in the town as with the signage itself.
One councillor had counted eight charity shops in the town and said that was too many.
It was reported that the Town Team had decided to write to Claire Perry MP and Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott to protest against the business rates regime that favours charity shops and acts as a financial incentive encouraging property owners to let their premises to charities.
The final decision on Cancer Research UK’s planning application lies with Wiltshire Council.
The irony is that the Town Council owns the shop near the Town Hall that has become the second Prospect Hospice shop – but at the end of last year the lease was re-assigned by the previous leaseholder – so the Town Council had no say over who the new occupant should be.