Festival Leisure Park, Rigby Road, Blackpool, FY1 5EP

external alterations to Unit 1 (the former Odeon building) including installation of roller shutters and a canopy to rear following the demolition of an existing bin store and use of Unit 1 as altered as a self- storage unit (Class B8), addition of a drive-thru lane to Unit 3 (the former Frankie and Benny’s), additional drive-thru lane at Unit 5 (McDonalds) installation of a pedestrian access ramp off Rigby Road and alterations to the car parking layout

Authority: Blackpool Borough Council
Appeal type: major · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Hearing
Development: employment-industrial · Major retail and services
Inspector: Ollerenshaw M

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the site is a suitable location for the proposed use having regard to the development plan strategy relating to employment uses and the Council's regeneration objectives for the area

What decided it

The proposal's conflict with the development plan strategy directing large-scale employment/storage uses to allocated employment land, undermining the site's role in leisure park viability and the Council's regeneration objectives.

The moderate weight attached to the scheme's benefits did not outweigh the significant weight attached to the harm from the unsuitable location and conflict with the development plan strategy.

Framework references: 127, 86, 135

Plan policies cited: CS1, CS3, CS12, CS24, DM7, DM8

Read the decision letter on the Inspectorate’s site

The main issues and the deciding factor are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.

What an account adds

Draw a red line around your site and the appraisal follows.

Heritage. Listed buildings by grade and distance, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, heritage at risk.
Landscape and environment. Green belt, national parks and national landscapes, SSSIs, ancient woodland, SPA, SAC and Ramsar sites, nutrient catchments.
Flooding. Flood zones 2 and 3, surface water, and both again with climate change.
Transport. The 800 metre station catchment and service frequency, bus stops with their weekday frequency, the cycle network, and the Framework’s transport tests measured for the site.

Then the development plan position, the housing land supply as an Inspector last accepted it, and every appeal decided around the site with its letter.

Every English appeal since 2016, with the letter behind it wherever the Inspectorate published one. Searched by meaning as well as by words, with the key case law counted live across the letters.

Casework that chases the deadlines. Applications, appeals and conditions with their statutory dates.

The judgement stays yours. The tool gathers the material and dates it.