Takeaway bid likely to be rejected over smells fears
PLANS to open another new restaurant and takeaway in Jesmond are set to be turned down, amid fears of “hooligan behaviour” and disgusting smells outside people’s homes.
A developer is hoping to turn the former Signature estate agents building in Acorn Road, which has lain empty for a year, into a new eatery.
But neighbours have complained that the area is already rammed with takeaways – as the street already boasts a Chinese, Nudo Sushi Box, the Tomahawk roast house, and a Greggs, plus others including Pizza Express and Fat Hippo nearby.
City planners have now recommended that councillors reject the proposals when they come before Newcastle City Council’s planning committee on Friday.
Fourteen neighbours have lodged objections against the plans, fearing increases in noise nuisance, smells from cooking or food waste, litter, and rats.
One objector told the council that the Acorn Road area is “overpopulated by eating outlets” and that another will “not in any way enhance the local shopping area”.
Another resident added: “Bins are often kicked over leaving many dangerous objects and broken glass littered everywhere, which we are left to clean up.”
Development consultants Curtis said in a planning application that the new business would create four jobs and is in a location that is “sustainable, easily accessible to residents in Jesmond and public transport”.
They added: “Whilst restaurant and takeaway use is proposed, is it considered that the operator is likely to offer healthy convenient food to cater for the local demand.
“Fume extraction is proposed to minimise impacts on odour emissions, therefore there will be no impact on residential amenity.”
However, council planning officers say that the building’s ventilation flue is too close to the homes behind it and “would lead to potential impacts of fumes and odours to the detriment of residential amenity”.
In a report recommending that the planning committee rejects the scheme, they add that neighbours would also be disturbed by “comings and goings of customers, particularly later in the evenings”.