A supermarket has won planning permission to install a “pod” in their car park for people to flog their motors to WeBuyAnyCar.

Customers of Morrisons will be able to sell their vehicles to the TV-advertised company while picking up their groceries at the Teesside Park store under the plans approved by Stockton Council.

The solar-powered “pod”, manned by one or two people, will take up two spaces in the car park off Newmarket Avenue, Thornaby.

Morrisons’ proposals for the car purchase business unit were approved with conditions as planning officers said it would not harm the retail park.

They said in their report: “In context of the wider area, the singular modular unit would be in-keeping with the retail environment and would not significantly or adversely impact on the character of the area.”

WeBuyAnyCar said the pod would offer motorists a quick and easy sale after customers are offered an online quotation. Whittam Cox Architects said in a design and access statement the plan “purposefully promotes economic activity within a key retail location”.

They said: “The scheme seeks to revitalise the existing Morrisons car park by offering more choice to customers and generating new employment opportunities through the provision of a WeBuyAnyCar.com pod.

“WM Morrison Supermarkets Ltd hope that the advantages of this proposal as well as the overall benefits to the local community will be supported.

Careful consideration has been placed in the positioning of the pod to ensure that there is no disruption to vehicular and pedestrian circulation and that the site will continue to operate as it exists.

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“WeBuyAnyCar.com’s online service allows for the agreement of a mutually convenient collection time at the site where inspection of the vehicle and agreement of the sale will occur. There is a maximum of 10 cars parked at a site at one time, however, this is more likely to be four to six on a normal day.

“The sold vehicles will remain in a space until collection. The cars stay on site for a maximum of 72 hours, but this is normally a much shorter period.”

They said they would not sell any cars from the site, only buy them then take them off-site and sell them at auction: “The plate drivers will collect and move the vehicles from the site to the auction house on an almost daily basis, therefore WeBuyAnyCar.com can provide some assurance that the 10 cars on-site at any one time will not be exceeded. WeBuyAnyCar.com have very little impact on a site as they make use of spaces out of the way from where Morrisons customers normally park.”