PLANS for a Costa Coffee drive through restaurant on the outskirts of Welshpool that could create 11 jobs, will be decided by Powys County Councillors next Thursday.
At the council’s Planning Committee meeting on Thursday, September 21, councillors will be presented with a proposal by Delves and Co for land at Rhallt View and Tan yr Allt View, on the A483 roundabout with the A458, opposite the Livestock market.
The principle for development has been established when a previous outline planning application for the site was agreed by the committee back in February 2020.
After this a detailed planning application was lodged with council just under two years ago to deal with the reserved matters of access, appearance, layout, landscaping, and scale.
A building at the site is set to be demolished with another one to be used for storage.
At that meeting in February 2020 the plans were voted through at the second time of asking due to concerns on highways access and that it was a departure from the Local Development Plan (LDP).
These concerns have continued, and the reserved matters application was “called in” for a decision by committee by the former Powys county councillor, for the area, Francesca Jump, who stood down as a councillor at the last election in May 2022.
Cllr Jump had said: “I am very concerned about the access to this development and the subsequent increase in traffic flow on an already congested roundabout.”
Welshpool Town Council had also “strongly” objected to the proposal when they discussed it.
Senior planning officer Richard Edwards said: “The proposal relates to a Costa drive through with the building being of a typical single storey design seen across the country for this brand.”
He explained that “extensive consultation” had taken place between the council as planning authority, the Welsh Government Highways department, and the developers to overcome a “holding direction” issued by the government on highway safety grounds.
Mr Edwards said: “Through the course of amended details and comments, Welsh Government Trunk Road have now removed their holding direction subject to conditions in respect of access and visibility being attached to any granting of planning permission.”
The Welsh Government said that conditions were needed to: “maintain the safety and free flow of trunk road traffic.”
Due to this, Mr Edwards recommends approving the applications with conditions that safety measures to maximise visibility for vehicles emerging from the drive through exit and onto the main road are implemented as part of the work.
