£8,000 smoking shelter must go

Kevin Sullivan, from the Miners Arms pub, in Madeley, Telford.

A Shropshire pub landlord has launched a scathing attack on council planners after he was ordered to pull down his £8,000 smokers' shelter.

Kevin Sullivan accused Telford & Wrekin Council of trying to drive smokers away from pubs altogether and said the order to demolish the structure would severely hit his trade and upset his mainly elderly customers at the Miners Arms in Prince Street, Madeley, Telford.

See more photos below

But the council said the shelter had been put up without planning permission and was an eyesore.

Mr Sullivan, aged 55, admitted the shelter had been put up without permission by his brewery, Marstons, and a retrospective planning application submitted last year had been turned down by the council.

The brewery appealed against the decision but an inspector dismissed the appeal in July this year and gave the brewery 20 weeks to take the shelter down.

Mr Sullivan said: "I'm absolutely appalled by what the planners have done.

"They told me that the smoking shelter spoils the line of the street but there isn't a line there in the first place.

"The shelter is really well made and was professionally designed and built.

"Around 80 per cent of my customers smoke and most of them are elderly. This now means they won't be able to use the pub and enjoy a pint and a smoke and that's going to really affect takings."

Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman David Morgan confirmed that a retrospective application for the shelter was turned down by the plans board on July 11 last year.

He added: "The local planning authority considers the development is unacceptable by virtue of its size, scale, design and location, and has an overly dominant impact on the existing building, thereby failing to enhance the character or appearance of the public house or the streetscene."

Mr Morgan said that planning officers had met Mr Sullivan and his agents to discuss options for the design and location of a replacement shelter so that a new planning application could be submitted.

By Simon Hardy

Telford & Wrekin Council said the shelter had been put up without planning permission and was an eyesore.

A retrospective planning application submitted last year was turned down by the council.

Kevin Sullivan launched a scathing attack on council planners after he was ordered to pull down the shelter.