Pizza takeaway wins planning appeal

Pizza Zio director Mohammed Tanvir applied for permission to convert an empty shop on High Street, Dawley, in order to move the outlet from its current location on nearby Burton Street.

Telford and Wrekin Council refused permission, citing a Local Plan policy that aims to limit “adjacent non-retail uses” in the borough’s town centres.

Mr Tanvir appealed, and a government-appointed inspector has now reversed the decision, saying the move would make use of a vacant building and attract customers into the shopping centre.

A statement, submitted on Mr Tanvir’s behalf with the original change-of-use application in November 2019, said the plan would make use of a vacant town-centre site and provide six full-time jobs.

Telford and Wrekin Council’s refusal notice, published by the planning department two months later, said the move would “create a continuous run of six adjacent non-retail uses within this primary shopping area”, violating a Local Plan policy.

A later report, produced by the department in response to Mr Tanvir’s appeal, acknowledged that there was “already a run of more than three adjacent non-retail uses” there, but said “these have been in situ for some time and before the current Local Plan was formally adopted”.

The Planning Inspectorate ruling says the High Street area is “relatively healthy” with a “good range of town centre uses” and five existing takeaways, if the current Pizza Zio premises are included.

The report explains that the Local Plan policy “aims to retain the predominantly retail role” of town centres, with changes of use away from retail only permitted “where a proposal would not create a concentration of more than three adjacent similar non-retail uses”.

The report continues: “In this case, the proposal would result in a continuous row of six non-retail uses.

However, a number of these are residences, and the council has confirmed some have been in non-retail use for a considerable time. As such, this particular stretch of the High Street has never met the requirements of the policy.

“Furthermore, there are no other hot food takeaways in the immediate vicinity, so, although the proposal would extend the run of non-retail uses, it would not result in a concentration of more than three similar uses.”

The report says the premises are “not currently contributing to the vitality of the high street” and “although the proposed pizza place would not be open until 4.00pm each day, it would attract customers into the high street at a time when shops and other uses would still be open”, complementing its main function as a shopping area.