A bid to change the use of a former shop in Ardrossan's Rowanside Terrace into a hot food takeaway has been refused by North Ayrshire Council.
The proposal would involve alterations to form a customer waiting room, service counter, kitchen area for food preparation and servery and area for sinks and toilet to the rear of the unit.
The property at 39 Rowanside Terrace is currently unoccupied and was last used as part of a shop.
There are two flatted properties situated above the retail units and there is an existing takeaway business, Lucky House Chinese, located at 43 Rowanside Terrace.
The proposed opening hours were from 4pm until 10pm Tuesday to Sunday, with premises being closed on Mondays. It was stated that the proposal planned to create up to five jobs and would benefit from existing layby parking.
Seven objections were received in response to the application, with one of the objections including a petition with over 50 signatures.
One of the objections stated that there is already severe lack of parking which significantly impacts residents. North Ayrshire Council Roads had no transport-related objections to the proposal as the parking area is available in this area.
Another concern was the noise which would be increased with more people visiting the area and car engines being left on but there were no objections received from NAC Environmental Health.
The rest of the concerns included litter, anti-social behaviour, as well as the potential for competition with the existing takeaway nearby.
Although there were no objections from NAC Environmental Health and NAC Roads, the proposed unit was rejected as it doesn't accord with other relevant policies, specifically the North Ayrshire Local Development Plan and National Planning Framework 4.
It is acknowledged that the unit benefits from existing parking and that the proposed flue would help mitigate cooking odours and any potential noise generation from the extract equipment could be controlled by a planning condition.
It was also recognised that the surrounding area is primarily residential. It was considered that the siting of a hot food takeaway in this location would be inappropriate and would significantly impact the residential character and amenities of the area.
The operation of the takeaway would create substantial late night noise with the coming and going of customers and delivery drivers visiting the area in the evenings. It was noted that a takeaway business already operates from 43 Rowanside Terrace and it is considered that the addition of a further takeaway operating late night hours would have the potential to cause significant detriment to the amenity of the surrounding area in terms of noise disturbance.
Furthermore, it was considered that the additional noise associated with the development would cause harm to the nearby residents. The applicant now has up to three months to appeal the decision.
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