Pub’s summer terrace plans rejected over safety concerns

Bosses at The Cutler pub in North Anston applied for permission from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) to create a summer outdoor terrace area with five sets of tables and chairs enclosed by timber planters.

The proposed area would have been used from April to September, and would have taken up five parking spaces while in use.

Residents had expressed concerns about increased traffic, loss of parking spaces, noise, and safety issues with the proposed outdoor seating area.

One resident says that parking is already an issue at the site, and the removal of five spaces will cause ‘mayhem’.

Other objectors questioned the need for the additional seating and the adequacy of a parking survey undertaken as part of the application.

During today’s (October 10) planning board meeting, Andrew Woodhead, clerk to Anston Parish Council, objected to the plans on the grounds of public safety.

Mr Woodhead told the meeting that the parish council is “very concerned from a public safety point of view”, adding that the car park could be described “at the best of times” as “very chaotic indeed”.

He added that the Tesco which shares a car park with the pub was granted planning permission on appeal on the grounds that all 27 spaces were retained – and that taking any of the spaces away would be ‘detrimental’.

Mr Woodhead added that a terrace would be “putting customers in danger by sticking them in a very busy car park”.

A traffic survey indicated that the car park rarely exceeds its capacity, suggesting that the impact of losing parking spaces would not ‘severely impact parking availability or highway safety’, as concluded by RMBC’s highways department.

Lisa Brooks, RMBC’s planning officer, said that the existing outdoor seating area on the site does not require planning permission, but the proposal for a summer terrace does, as the planning inspectorate imposed a condition that all 27 car parking spaces were to be retained when the Tesco store was approved.

Councillor Simon Currie told the meeting: “It just to me seems unsafe. It’s just putting people at risk.”

He added that the plans would put ‘children adults and children at risk in a car park’.

Councillor Drew Tarmey added that the car park is “not being well managed in its current state.”

“We get a lot of vehicles stopping and queuing. The real problem that we’ve got here is that the infrastructure around there is not designed for a large number of cars crossing that footway,” he added.

“We do get cars backing up along Nursery Road. The footway is deteriorating because of the number of cars that is crossing over it.

“The car park’s not being operated efficiently. People are parking on the grass verge further up Nursery Road. We have been promised some bollards. Officers and the developers need to go back and address some of these issues before it comes back to board.”

Simon Gammons, the council’s highways officer, says vehicles’ speed through the car park is ‘low’, and that pedestrians do have right of way as they walk across it.

He added that the department was not aware of vehicles waiting on the highway to get into the car park, and that traffic surveys were taken for ten hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout May and June.

Councillors had hoped to defer the application until safety issues could be addressed, but Ms Brooks said there would be no benefit in going back to the applicant.

“This is the only location, and the reasons they’ve given..is prominence for the pub..so people can see how busy it is.”

Lisa Brooks said that planning permission isn’t required to drink outside the pub, and that the terrace is temporary. “I don’t think, at this stage, there’s any benefit in going back to the applicant and saying what else can you do. In terms of location, I don’t think that’s a viable option.”

In a report to the planning board, highway officers say that the application won’t adversely affect parking or traffic flow.

In response to concerns about noise from the terrace, the applicant reduced the operating hours for the terrace to 10am to 10pm.

A condition will also prohibit live or amplified music on the terraces, in a bid to reduce noise disruption to residents.

Councillors voted to refuse permission for the terrace, on the grounds that there is potential for pedestrian and car conflict to the detriment of the safety of users.