Casebook: Food and drink uses - Route change saves cafe redevelopment

Planning, 18 July 2008

The appeal site lay in an area identified as being of strategic importance for regeneration, growth and investment in the M11 corridor. The council observed that the site lay along the route of a planned high-quality pedestrian and cycle link that would be implemented before the London 2012 Olympics. The appeal proposal would effectively prejudice its ability to take forward the link, it claimed.

The inspector found that the cafe was a popular and much-appreciated refreshment facility, effectively serving as a canteen for workers employed nearby. However, it amounted to little more than a prefabricated structure similar to a mobile classroom. He considered that the appeal proposal, which would provide a two-storey building with a meeting room on the first floor, would improve the area's character and generate investment.

In his view, an area of parkland adjacent and other green space outside the site would afford enough room to enable the link to be constructed. Indeed, he noted that only a slight deviation to the alignment would divert it round the appeal site altogether. He concluded that a temporary permission was justified until the middle of 2013, reasoning that it would then be a matter for the appellant to assess whether the redevelopment scheme would be a viable investment.

DCS Number 100-056-167

Inspector David Lavender; Hearing.