A parish council has claimed a leading carpet retailer’s plans for a warehouse store next to a heavily congested road “would fully deny local residents of the right to live a peaceful existence”.

Brough St Giles Parish Council has urged Richmondshire District Council’s planning committee to reject Calvert's Carpets’ proposal to build a 1,360sq m warehouse with a trade counter and sales showroom opposite Brough Garage, off the A6136 Catterick Road in Colburn.

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In planning papers to support the application, the Thirsk-based firm, which has developed since starting in the 1970s with sales in town halls and market stalls into one of North Yorkshire’s best known retailers, said 38 car parking spaces would be provided at the store.

Ahead of the planning meeting on Tuesday, an agent for the firm highlighted how several plans for carpet warehouses had previously been approved for the site, but stated the latest proposal featuring retail would bring work into the area and promote a sustainable economy in the area.

After an application to build a Starbucks and Burger King on the site was lodged in 2018 Brough St Giles Parish Council lodged an objection to that plan too, stating how the “heavily congested” A6136 was the main artery from the A1 into the Garrison and onto Richmond and that there were often “near misses” close to the proposed site.

In its objection to the warehouse store plan, the parish council said the scheme would increase congestion and the risk of accidents.

It stated: “It is already nearly impossible for pedestrians to cross the road either above or below the roundabout.

“The above mentioned would fully deny local residents of the right to live a peaceful existence without increased traffic noise and vehicle pollution.”

A planning officer’s report to the meeting states other than Calvert’s Carpets premises in Richmond and and nearby Brompton there are no other flooring outlets in the vicinity.

It states: “Typically, such bulky goods type outlets are not what would normally be expected in a town/local centres, due to the size and space requirements of such operations.

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"For these reasons, it is considered that this is a sustainable location for the type of operation proposed.”

The officers concluded the Calverts Carpets proposal would “have significantly less potential to generate adverse noise impacts” than the Burger King and Starbucks application.

They added it was not considered likely the operations of the warehouse would be discernible as a discrete noise source at nearby residential properties.

Recommending the scheme be approved, the report states the warehouse store would have “an acceptable relationship to neighbouring property and would be of a scale and design commensurate and compatible with its surroundings”.

It added: “There is sufficient car parking proposed for the development and the development would not prejudice highway safety…”

 

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