Kendal pub car park shop refused after hundreds oppose plan

A plan to build a shop on a pub car park and beer garden has been rejected by councillors after objections from more than 700 people.

Pub owner Punch Partnerships wanted to build a convenience store behind the Duke of Cumberland in Kendal, Cumbria.

Some 728 objections were sent to South Lakeland District Council including from the pub's own landlords.

The council's planning committee refused permission saying there were better sites for a shop.

Traffic, flooding, parking and litter were among the topics raised by opponents of the scheme at the junction of Appleby Road and Shap Road, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

At the planning meeting, Josh Macaulay, who runs the pub with business partner Chris Moss, accused Punch Partnerships of "profiteering from our community" and the loss of the car park and beer garden would make the pub unviable.

"It wouldn't be profitable, and we'd strip the site and leave," he said.

Councillor Shirley Evans, who represents Kendal Nether and lives near to the proposed development, said there were "plenty of suitable" locations rather than the proposed site next to "one of the most complex and busiest junctions in Kendal".

A spokesman for Punch told councillors the amount of parking proposed for the site '"complies with the council's adopted standards" and other identified vacant town centre premises were "not suited to a convenience store".

But the planning committee said there were "a number of sequentially preferable sites within the town centre" that were "at lower risk of flooding" and the scheme also offered a "shortfall in parking provision".

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