Falkirk Council: Vacant site to remain after Greggs drive-thru plans refused

Members of Falkirk Council’s planning committee refused permission for the bakery giants to transform the vacant land adjacent to and to the south of 58 Grahams Road in Falkirk into a new outlet on Wednesday morning.

Councillors agreed with planning officials that the proposals should be refused.

Plans for the site had met strong objections from the local community council, along with several individual residents.

Greggs were seeking permission to “erect a restaurant (Class 3) with a drive-thru facility and associated works, including parking and landscaping”.

Councillors heard the site has been vacant for more than ten years and while some of it is being used as a temporary car park, much of it is heavily overgrown.

Among the concerns of residents were fears over the fumes the drive-thru would generate with slow moving traffic that would increase air pollution; noise and litter.

There were also concerns raised over further traffic congestion around the already busy Grahams Road.

Speaking at the meeting on behalf of Grahamston, Middlefield and Westfield Community Council, Charles McKerral said there were concerns over the impact on adjacent streets such as James Street, George Street, Russell Street and Meeks Road which are streets “built for horses and carts really, 120 years ago, they are not built for the traffic it has now”.

He also asked committee members to consider the litter and the vermin that the development may cause backing onto residential streets.

Councillors heard Greggs would invest around £475,000 fitting out the new premises and the development would create 15 new jobs once open.

They also heard it would provide construction jobs locally.

Craig Gunderson, from agents Savills, said the site has been “a problem site” for many years and previous attempts to market the site had limited interest over the last five to ten years with any interest received from restaurant and drive-thru operators.

Previous plans had been approved for the creation of a restaurant on the site in 2017.

He continued: “Despite securing planning permission, the onerous design and layout requirements for the building which were imposed by the council meant that the perspective operator Tony Macaroni did not advance discussions following the consent of planning permission and ultimately the land owner was unable to deliver the unit following the loss of this interest.”

Mr Gunderson said this previous planning permission which had been granted “established a principal of a restaurant cafe use” for the location.

He warned that if the application was not approved “the site will likely remain vacant for the foreseeable future due to lack of demand and interested parties".

He said approving the development would “help bring a long-term vacant site back into beneficial and active use and create much needed jobs in an uncertain economic climate”.

In their report planning officers indicated a number of areas of concern including that the development could have an adverse impact on residential properties and could create problems with noise and odours for neighbours.

An Air Quality Impact Assessment (AQIA) would also be needed before work could commence.

The report also said the “design quality of the unit is considered to be unacceptable and it is not in keeping with the well established character of the surrounding streetscape”.

Councillor James Kerr expressed support for approving the application, saying “it's already had previous approval for a food outlet and the 15 jobs is a major thing for me”.

He failed to find a seconder, and the application was refused by the committee.