Plans for a pub beer garden controversially turned down at the final vote are to be brought back before councillors because of a procedural error. A high-spec design for the Edison on the thriving Monton Road in Eccles was put before Salford's planning and transportation regulatory panel.
Two neighbouring residents of Alfred Street voiced strong objections to the plan followed by a vociferous debate about the plan among panel members. Four councillors voted to approve the application but included in the four that voted against it was chairman Coun Ray Mashiter, which proved decisive.
However, Edison owner Kevin Grannell received an email from Salford's planning department the following day saying the application would need to go before the next panel meeting again next month. According to the city council's legal advisers, once councillors had voted not to approve the application, a second resolution to refuse it stating the reasons should have been put to the vote. This did not happen.
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One of the objectors was a doctor living next door to the Edison. The medic, who works nightshifts in a local hospital and who asked not to be identified by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said noise emanating from the beer garden would have an 'unacceptable impact on [her family's} health amenity and quality of life. "This area is completely residential in nature," she said.
"My three-year-old child sleeps in the bedroom next to where the beer garden would be." Another resident complained of the prospect of 'anti-social behaviour and unwelcome noise' and parking problems on Alfred Street.
"Our houses have been here for 120 years," she said. "But the Edison has been there for only two years. It should've been located somewhere else, not on the corner of a residential street."
However, Coun Philip Cusack said he noted that there was condition stipulating that the beer garden would cease to operate beyond 7pm in the evening, and therefore noise may not present a problem for neighbouring houses. But Coun Mike McCuster countered: "Monton is a thriving community, attracting people from all over Greater Manchester."
He said that the area had reached 'the point of saturation'. "The greatest number of issues raised with us [as councillors] are from near beer gardens that are in residential areas.
"I think there should be a balance between the residents of Monton and having a thriving town centre. If you keep things on Monton Road [the high street] it's fine. Once it starts creeping down the streets into residential areas the balance is broken."
But he added: "I believe that Edison is well run and well managed." Coun Andrew Walters said if 'night working' was to be a consideration 'we would have to completely rewrite planning rules'.
Coun Mashiter opted to use his casting vote against approval of the application on the grounds of the prospect of noise and a 'loss of amenity' for local residents. Meanwhile, Mr Grannell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he would have appealed against the refusal if the decision had stood.
Mr Grannell said he had invested almost £500,000 in Edison and was hoping open a restaurant two doors down Monton Road in the near future, taking his total investment to £1.5million. And he described the proceedings at the panel as ' farcical'.
The 56-year-old described Edison which he launched two years ago as a 'family business'. "I am from Eccles, and I wanted a bar in Monton - a place for families and friends to enjoy food and a night out.
"There's never any trouble here. All our customers know our doormen by name." Mr Grannell said he was 'really hurt' by a personal attack on him and his family by one of the objectors and it was making him reconsider his investment into the restaurant.
He also said that businesses on Monton Road, which were retailers, were also operating bars without planning permission. "It seems like there is one rule for them, but another for us," he said.
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