Council refuses request for extended hours of petrol station

A proposal for Bury Road petrol station to open twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, has been denied.

A petition, signed by 889 members of the public was submitted to the council following the planning application.

The station is surrounded by residential dwellings, with four properties on Bury Road and Battersby Street, sharing a direct boundary with the application site. The site is a single storey, brick-built sales office, set back slightly from Bury Road, occupying a central location.

889 people have signed a petition claiming they want the proposal to be accepted, however, the people that submitted the application do not live local, and there are various other twenty-four hour Petrol Filling Pumps within a mile of the Bury Road Service Station.

A request like this has been put forward in the past, but was denied. Councillor Ian Duckworth said that “There is no substantial change to the situation since the last application and therefore requests the proposal be rejected by members on the same grounds.”

The locals seem to be sharing the same opinion of Councillor Duckworth, and several letters of complaint have been written in, some complaining about the noise, saying that “The current levels of noise emanating from the petrol filling station is barley tolerable, to have this all night would be totally unreasonable,” and one of the objectors has commented that they have had to move into the back bedroom as to escape the floodlights.

Occupants of houses surrounding the application site are also concerned that the proposal would encourage undesirable behaviour, increase the risk of robbery in the area, and that the station could be used a place to congregate whilst waiting at night.

The report says the proposal was considered contrary to the Policies of Design Criteria for New Development and Noise and New Development of the Rochdale UDP.

Home-owners were also worried that the extension of hours would affect the house prices in the residential area, and are questioning that if the rational for twenty-four hour opening is to help security; surely the answer would be to install appropriate security devices.

The Environmental Health Officer has objected to the extended hours of trading due to the impact on the proposal would have upon the adjacent residential dwellings. They also say “Extending the trade to twenty-four hours a day is likely to result in disamenity to local residents. This would include noise from vehicles arriving and leaving, car doors slamming, voices and noise from car radios etc… Therefore it is recommended that this application is not approved.”