A Papa John's takeaway has been permitted to open in a Bristol suburb, despite an initial planning application being rejected by the local council over childhood obesity fears.
The pizza company's application to open a store in Lawrence Weston was rejected by Bristol City Council in October 2021, on the grounds of over-concentration of takeaways, the impact on public health and litter. But Papa John's has won its appeal with the Planning Inspectorate, the national government's planning appeal office, and will now be allowed to open.
The takeaway will move into the former William Hill bookies on Ridingleaze, although Papa John's did not confirm when when this will happen. The initial plans were rejected by the council despite officers’ advice to approve, and signified a victory for residents at the time.
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More than 30 locals objected to the application, including community group the Lawrence Weston Neighbourhood Planning Forum, which noted its concerns about litter, smells, antisocial behaviour and the vitality of the retail centre. There are three hot food takeaways in the area currently, and there were concerns that adding another could lead to an over-concentration in the area.
But Inspector Helen Davies has allowed the appeal, overruling the council, and wrote in her report that the evidence "does not lead me to conclude" that having the takeaway in Lawrence Weston will lead to more unhealthy choices being made by people. She commented that there are a "wide range of choices" for people there, and found that many of the concerns expressed by local residents and by the planning committee were not grounds for rejecting the application.
Her report said that Ridingleaze "contains a good mix of uses and vacancy levels seem low", and so allowing another fast-food takeaway to open would still allow it to "maintain an appropriate balance". She also said there was no "substantive evidence" to conclude that the takeaway "would increase the level of anti-social behaviour and littering to such an extent that it would warrant withholding planning permission".
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And she added: "I have no substantive evidence to support a conclusion that one additional hot food takeaway would result in harm to the retailing vitality of the Ridingleaze local centre."
The Lawrence Weston Neighbourhood Development Plan – adopted in 2017 following a referendum – contained a policy opposing new hot food takeaways, but this was based on there being five such businesses in the parade of shops when in fact there were only three, according to officers who advised Bristol City Council to approve the initial application.
These did not include Greggs or Smiler’s Cafe which are classed as retail and a cafe respectively under planning law because neither is primarily a hot food takeaway, said officers. They said having a fourth would still mean the 20 per cent limit on takeaways in the 1960s centre as set out in the policy was not exceeded, so there was “no harmful over-concentration”.
But Mark Pepper, lifelong resident, Development Manager for Ambition Lawrence Weston and chair of the Lawrence Weston Planning Forum, said the decision will be met with "with grave disappointment and disgust" by local residents.
He said: "It saddens, frustrates and angers us, that our voice has been ignored and we are being forced to accept a development that no one else wants, except a large international company and one planning inspector who doesn’t live here, so doesn’t need to deal with the negative issues this decision will create. There was not one comment of support during the planning application consultation period, but all comments made were opposing this development."
And Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston councillor Don Alexander has said he is "not happy" with the decision to overrule the council. He said: "I'm concerned that there are already sufficient fast food establishments on that rather small row of shops, which is very much the centre of the community and it is the only row of shops there.
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"So I'm not against fast food per se, but we don't need more fast food. Actually what we need is greengrocers, bakers and things like that, which produce healthier food and make it locally available in a place that people can get to.
'Food deserts'
"It's a problem that's common in a lot of estates around the city, they call it food deserts - places that are taken up by a lot of fast food stores, and that means people that haven't got the ability to travel easily have got quite limited choice of quality food.
"So it's great that we've got a Co-op there, but it's a long way to go to any other shops if you're in Lawrence Weston, so the quality of each of them is quite important. It's like cakes, nobody's against cakes but it's a treat, it's not something you want to have every day. But there's a temptation there that you use it too often because it's actually easier to get than it is to get quality food."
Papa John's declined to comment and said they need to wait until the store is open before they can confirm details.
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