*OUR USUAL CAVEAT* this article is based only on the facts of a planning application received by WDC. Plans can be approved or not, and even if approved – the business may still not proceed for other reasons!
Change of Use Planning Application
A few months back, “Exquisite”, the Portuguese shop in Anglers Court, Spittal Street, closed. A planning application has just gone in for a change of use by the landlords.
Change of use from A1 (retail) use to a mixed A1 (retail) A3 (café/restaurant) and A5 (hot food takeaway) use.
This is quite an odd combination, a fact which is referred to in the planning – stating that the proposal is to have a primary function as a café/restaurant with the ability
to have an hot food takeaway element, whilst also being able to have retail sales of other food items.
Proposed layout
We have looked at the plans, and shown a small part below – these are publicly available on the WDC website.
The left hand side is for food preparation, whilst the counter at the back would have a till in the middle with a food/drink service counter one side and a section marked “gelato”, which is Italian style ice cream.
Customer seating is based around sitting at a long counter which winds around the premises, rather than individual tables and chairs.
Any more clues?
The application cites the “Mad Squirrel” in High Wycombe as another example of a similar mixed use. This sells beers and pizzas for drinking on site, or takeaway. Before we get carried away – it seems this is only cited as an example, to establish a precedent with the planning committee – it would be at odds with the other aspects of the plans, and would probably require an “A4 Drinking establishments” application. But who knows! (We will soon enough!!)
Sometimes a speculative application is put in by a landlord, just to make the property appeal to a larger number of prospective tenants, but this does seems a very specific application, so its hard to imagine it is not for a specific use by a tenant. Watch this space….
