Planners Move ‘Kick in Teeth’ For Taxi Firm
8th September 2008
A Lakes taxi firm claims it is being forced out of Windermere after Lake District planners refused to grant permanent planning approval.
B-Line Taxis, which employs 24 staff, has been operating at its Back Ellerthwaite Road base with temporary permission for 12 months.
But business owner Dave Windsor said he has now been given a matter of “months” to move after his latest application was turned down.
He described the decision, by members of the Lake District National Park Authority’s planning committee, as a “kick in the teeth”.
Mr Windsor said: “I just don’t know where to go or what to do. I’ve got a few months to move the business but there’s still a year to pay on the lease. We want to stay in Windermere but there are no industrial units away from houses around here that we can go to.”
Mr Windsor said the firm provided a public service that was vital in a rural area like South Lakeland.
He said: “Elderly people call on us and we work for schools in the area as well as the residents who use the service regularly. I just don’t understand it. The premises have planning permission for light industrial use but the planners won’t allow a taxi firm.”
Planners at the LDNPA were informed the temporary time limit had been put in place to give the planners time to see if the business could operate within planning conditions, which were imposed to safeguard amenity and highway safety.
But since then residents have expressed concern that the conditions were being breached, with taxis entering and leaving the site via Brook Road and visiting the site after 11pm.
There were also concerns about B-Line employees leaving their private vehicles and taxis in Brook Road.
Head of development management at the authority, David McGowan, told the committee, at Murley Moss on Wednesday, that a warning had been issued about breaching the planning conditions.
Windermere Town Council recommended refusal of the recent application on the grounds that the business was an “unneighbourly and inappropriate development in a predominantly residential area”.
There were also 11 letters of objection from local residents.
Two of the objectors addressed the committee personally.
One, Mr L Sutton, said he was concerned about the affect on the amenities of residents of “all-day taxi operations”, including loud noise and door shutting up to midnight.
He said: “I support the continuance of the business, but it needs to be somewhere else.”
Planning officers recommended refusal because the taxi and workshop use caused unacceptable harm to the amenity enjoyed by the residents of nearby properties.
Granting planning permission, they said, “would perpetuate this harm”.
Source; North-West Evening Mail
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