New Petrol Station & Drive-Thru Coffee Shop On Wrexham Golf Club / Borras Roundabout set to be green lighted despite ‘boy racer’ fears

Plans to build a new petrol station in Wrexham look set to be approved despite fears it will “attract anti-social behaviour and become a meeting place for ‘boy racers’ “.

Liberty Properties has put forward proposals to build a filling station, convenience store and a drive-thru coffee shop on land next to Wrexham Golf Club on the Llanypwll link road.

Also created on site will be a 24 hour ATM, a car wash, outside seating area and car parking spaces.

The drive thru coffee provision in the planning application was described as ‘a response to the growing demand from motorists to have access to refreshments on a quick turn around basis without the need to park or leave their vehicles’. Such laziness of the modern driver is described as a response to the ‘pace and expectations of modern life’.

However, Wrexham Council officers have now given their backing to the proposals after a larger scheme at the same location was refused

In a report set to go before planning committee members next week, the authority’s head of environment and planning, Lawrence Isted, said: “I had initial concerns in relation to the scale of the proposed development and the impact this would have upon the character and appearance of the area and, in relation to the proposed restaurants, the lack of safe pedestrian access to the facilities and the additional traffic movements that these uses would generate.

“This application was withdrawn subsequently in consideration of an alternative scheme which was to provide for roadside services only to cater for existing users of the dual carriageway which links the Wrexham Industrial Estate to the A483 trunk road.

“The lack of any roadside services between the Wrexham Industrial Estate and the A483 trunk road is considered to be a very exceptional circumstance which outweighs any harm caused to the green barrier by the loss of a small  amount of green barrier land.

“Currently the only roadside services providing comparable facilities to those now proposed are at Chester.

“By placing the services more appropriately at roadside, there would be a reduction in the number vehicles making unnecessary trips into the residential areas which would ease the impact upon busy junctions such as the roundabout at the Greyhound Public House on Holt Road and the roundabout near to the Plas Coch Sainsbury’s filling stations etc. This would be to the benefit of all users of the highway.”

Among the issues raised in response to the proposals were concerns that it would impact the viability of the neighbouring golf shop and that stray golf balls could pose a safety risk.

However, Mr Isted said he did not believe it would pose a danger to people using the service station and also dismissed the road safety fears voiced by residents.

He said: “Safety concerns been raised in respect of stray golf balls from the adjacent golf club however, I do not feel that this presents a significant threat to the future users of the development.

“Further, there are concerns that the filling station and kiosk will be competition for the shop at the adjacent golf club and threaten this business.

Competition is not a relevant planning consideration.

“An accident analysis has not revealed any material personal injury accident problems on the highway network surrounding the site; there are no significant clusters or trends that could be considered to be a cause for a concern.”

Wrexham Council’s planning committee will meet to discuss the proposals on Monday.

The report recommends that approval for the scheme is granted subject to a number of conditions being met.

Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).