PLANS for a hand car wash and car valeting warehouse at a Helensburgh town centre site have been refused planning permission for the second time.
Miran Sharif’s proposal for the site at 19 George Street was initially knocked back by Argyll and Bute Council officers in July 2023, amid concerns over traffic levels and road safety.
The same applicant made a fresh application to the authority, but a roads engineer has again recommended refusal.
Four objections were also received by the council, which has now announced its decision to refuse planning permission.
A handling report quoted a roads engineer as saying: “At present, this section of George Street operates an uncontrolled parking provision, predominantly along the east kerbline.
“Vehicles are positioned perpendicular to the east side kerbline. Vehicles comprising both car and van park either reverse in, or front in.
“Some vehicles are found to park along, or perpendicular to, the west side kerb line, however significantly lesser than that of the east side.
“Furthermore, it was noted that the dwelling house, 73A East Princes Street, has double garage access along the west kerbline of George Street, prior to the proposed site, with possible two-vehicle parking in front of the garage.
“It is noted that the applicant’s proposal states that the proposed will facilitate 10 vehicle washes per hour.
“This therefore constitutes a potential 10 vehicles movements in and 10 vehicle movements out of George Street, creating a significantly greater volume of traffic than that which is typically currently.
“With this in mind, and with due consideration for the less than ideal, but historic parking practices on George Street, I would consider an intensification of vehicle movements of this volume – up to 160 vehicle movements over an eight-hour day – a significant hazard to existing residential parking practices.
“I would therefore recommend the proposed for refusal.”
A planning officer then said in the same report: “Following on from the above comments, the applicant undertook a survey of their existing car wash in Balloch to provide a representation of the volume of vehicles rather than the estimated 10 vehicles per hour.
“The additional information illustrated that the no. of vehicles using the Balloch facility was effected by whether it was a weekend / holiday or not.
“The survey shows that the maximum number on a ‘good’ day would be around 27 cars, which would be maximum of 54 vehicle movements over an eight-hour day (rather than the original estimate of 160).
“The roads officer reviewed this data and stated that their position remained unchanged. The data was not undertaken by a third party traffic data capture so the accuracy of the data is questionable.”
The report concluded that planning permission should be refused.
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