Revised plans for takeaways, dessert shop and and restaurant at Preston social club site

A former Preston social club could be turned into a food hub under new plans.

In the latest of a string of applications, Castle Homes Estates are seeking permission to turn the New Central Club in St Mary's Street North, into a cafe/restaurant, two hot food takeaways, a dessert takeaway and a restaurant. They also want to make alterations to all elevations, with new external bin store, landscaping and new boundary treatments.

Permission was granted in July 2023 to convert part of the club into a café and car wash. This was then dropped and in November, plans were launched by the same applicant to subdivide the building into five units to create a cafe/restaurant, hot food takeaway, a dessert bar, and two non-specified retail premises. The retail element has now been dropped.

What do Castle Homes say?

Urban Future Planning Consultancy Ltd, acting as agent for Castle Homes, said: "This revised scheme is made up primarily of café/ restaurant / food business floorspace which would serve a local need only and are not of a scale that would impact the vitality of the nearest centre or the city centre which are located some distance away and which in any case appear vibrant with low vacancy rates. In any case, the site is well-connected to the city centre. "Moreover, the change of use would result in job creation for local people, positive supply chain benefits to local businesses and promote consumer choice. This ought to be welcomed in a post-Brexit post Covid-19 uncertain economic outlook."

Traffic

The agent says the 25-space existing car park is "generous", and states that the site is on a well-connected public transport route. They say the revised scheme would not result in notable traffic generation or parking demand over and above the already-approved car wash.