Plans have been put forward to construct a complex of four trade units and a fast food restaurant with drive-through capability on the site of the former Motorline Toyota car dealership on Gloucester Road, Patchway.
The site is currently vacant, except for the steel framework of a former workshop, the main building of the former car dealership having been demolished.
The proposed trade unit buildings will have mezzanine floors providing ancillary office space and welfare facilities for staff. External areas are configured to provide parking for customers and staff as well as manoeuvring space for delivery and service vehicles.
The fast food restaurant (1) and three of the four trade units (2, 3 & 4) are joined in a block close to the main road, whilst the fourth unit (5) will be formed out of the retained steel framework of the former workshop at the rear of the site.
Note: The annotations 1 to 5 refer to annotations in the site plan shown below.
The fast food restaurant occupies the ground floor of the left wing of the main block (when viewed from the main road). It will have a dedicated access point off the main road at which cars will turn left on entering and then travel down the left side of the building where the order & pay hatch is located. Vehicles will then loop around the back of the building and enter a tunnel in which the collect hatch is located before emerging at the front of the building and returning to the site access point.
The franchisor of the proposed fast food restaurant is not revealed in the planning application.
Proposed layout of a development on the site of the former Toyota dealership on Gloucester Road, Patchway.
Access and parking
Access to the trade units will be from a separate entry/exit point in the south-east corner of the site, close to the junction of Gloucester Road and The Grove.
Parking for trade unit staff, customers and deliveries immediately adjoin each respective unit, with overspill parking to the western boundary of the site, adjoining the railway line.
Customer parking for the fast food restaurant is located in the south-west corner of the site (the point closest to the railway bridge).
Council objections
The plans have received a frosty reception from two local town/parish councils (see their responses below). Their concerns relate to traffic and the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
Patchway Town Council
Patchway Town Council strongly objects to this planning application. The reasons for this are stated below.
The council feels that this area is not suitable for a commercial outlet of this size and believe this will cause further disruption with traffic on the A38 and into Patchway, Stoke Lodge and Bradley Stoke. When the Toyota dealership was in situ, the delivery of their cars would cause traffic issues for around two hours and the council feel that the issue will become more pertinent with this development. The council also has concerns as to the scale and mass of the development and believe it constitutes as on over development. The existing building was one of character and in keeping with Patchway’s history however this new development shows no regards to the history of Patchway nor the issues of the present day.
The council feel that this development would cause a detrimental impact upon pedestrians and cyclists, who already struggle navigating this section of the A38 due to the amount of left turnings. This development will create further obstruction for these persons and we believe it will discourage residents to walk or cycle on that route.
The council feel that the four traffic ingress and egress positions would have a negative flow on traffic on the A38 as well as the build up of traffic inside the commercial area.
Stoke Lodge and The Common Parish Council
Stoke Lodge and The Common Parish Council would like to object to this application on the following basis:
- There will be high volumes of traffic entering the site from a 40mph road.
- Increased risk of accident/injury when said vehicles slow significantly on the main road to enter the site (or enter the site at speed to avoid this).
- A drive through/takeaway location will also attract significant pedestrian traffic (including those
crossing the A38). This further increases the risk when a large number of vehicles are also trying
to enter the site (sometimes at speed). - Additional danger to pedestrians who already use the pavement due to a significant increase in
the number of vehicles accessing the site across their path. - Inconvenience to other road users due to traffic delays.
More information and related links:
- Planning application P22/04459/F (SGC)
- Hi-res version of CGI visualisation image (on Dropbox)
- Hi-res version of site plan image (on Dropbox)
The applicant is GGT Estates Limited.
At the time of writing, the new planning application remains open to public comment – via the ‘Make a comment’ button shown on the application webpage (see link above). Registration may be required if you haven’t previously commented on a planning application.
Editor’s note: An earlier planning application (P21/00409/F) to build a large (6,731 GIA sqm) storage unit on the site was refused permission by South Gloucestershire Council in November 2021.
