A decision on the planning application by ‘Zest’ (the former Kingdon Hall building) on the junction of Moss Bank Way and Chorley Old Road was deferred at the Bolton Planning Committee on 3rd September. The application was for “retention of first floor as conference facility, training room and cookery school” – it had been operating as that (as well as the approved uses as a delicatessan, coffee shop and snack bar) for some time without specific planning permission.

Residents were opposed, mainly on parking and traffic grounds. They were also suspicious of what had been called ‘planning creep’: 5 planning applications in just over a year, most getting permission for activities that had already started, and concerned that several conditions imposed in connection with previous applications had not been complied with.

The applicants had invited residents, together with Councillor Carole Swarbrick and myself to a meeting several days before the Planning Committee, and this did prove quite useful, but did not remove all the concerns. 

The Highways Engineer recommended that the application should be refused (as he had with previous applications for this site), but despite that the Planners were recommending approval.

I spoke to the Committee and recommended that the application should be refused on parking and road safety grounds. I suggested that if the Committee was minded to give approval, it should impose a number of specific conditions which had been discussed at the meeting with residents.

Refusal was proposed, as was approval, but before a vote was taken it was proposed that a decision should be deferred to allow a more detailed report on road safety and parking issues at the site to be prepared. This means the application is unlikely to come back to the Planning Committee before 15th October.

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