Cheers and applause greeted the brave and unexpected decision by Wiltshire councillors at 7.10pm last night (Thursday) to refuse Caffe Nero retrospective planning permission for its new coffee shop in Marlborough High Street.
Wiltshire Council’s eastern area planning committee voted seven to one against giving the international chain the vital consent it requires to continue trading legally.
And if the council now issues an enforcement order Caffe Nero may be forced to close its doors while it seeks to challenge the council in the courts after opening before seeking change of use consent for the former Dash fashion store.
“It’s amazing – I never thought we would do it,” declared overjoyed Councillor Richard Pitts, the Marlborough town councillor who helped to organise an opposition group of sixteen fellow councillors, local traders and residents who packed the meeting in Devizes.
And at Monday’s forthcoming meeting of the town council’s planning committee it is likely that demands will be made to halt Caffe Nero continuing to operate after it was accused of flagrantly breaking planning regulations in market towns across the country.
“As I understand it, if they continue to trade having had their application rejected they will be in breach of the law and acting illegally,” Derek Wolfe, Marlborough’s town clerk, who attended Devizes meeting, told Marlborough News Online.
“The planning authority now has good reason to issue an enforcement order for them to stop trading. This will be discussed when our Planning Committee meets on Monday.”
The dramatic result came after the Wiltshire councillors had heard vociferous objections to Caffe Nero’s “arrogant attitude” in ignoring the accepted planning process having won sixteen appeals in towns across the country.
They came from Councillors Nick Fogg and Peggy Dow, who represent Marlborough on Wiltshire Council, plus Marlborough councillors Margaret Rose and Richard Pitts, Marlborough Food Gallery proprietor Bob Holman, a representative of CPRE and, in particular, Marlborough High Street resident Liz Rolph.
Some sixty objections had been sent to Wiltshire Council from residents, independent traders, the Chamber of Commerce and the town council while Wiltshire had received just one letter in support of Caffe Nero.
But what significantly jolted Mike Wilmott, Wiltshire’s planning development chief, was an outspoken attack on his report to the committee from its own vice chairman, Councillor Richard Gamble, which stunned the meeting as he dissected the officer’s report.
He virtually accused Mr Wilmott of failing to understand the existing planning legislation and the county’s own core planning policies.
He also dismissed as “unproven and unsubstantiated” a survey of customers report Caffe Nero had submitted to the council supporting its claim that it was adding vitality and viability to the town.
In fact Mr Holman wondered why it was that the survey report contained very similar figures as one since submitted by Caffe Nero for its latest application for its new coffee shop in Devizes, also opened without planning consent.
Mr Wilmott responded by asking whether Mr Gamble was claiming that Caffe Nero was lying, a surprising challenge for a council officer to an elected member.
And Mr Wilmott also dismissed what Marlborough objectors thought might be their hidden weapon – the fact that Caffe Nero had failed to abide by the new Localism Act, which required them to hold a pre-application consultation exercise before seeking planning permission.
This was part of the objections laid before the committee by Liz Rolph, a resident of Marlborough High Street for the past seven years, based on the research of her 19-year-old university student daughter Hannah, a former pupil at St John’s, Marlborough.
“If they are allowed to do this, what is to stop anyone else coming in and doing the same thing?” she asked. “This is a café – would you like a lap-dancing club or perhaps a sex shop to open?”
“What is to stop them if the planning process is now allowed to be ignored?”
Councillor Pitts protested that while Caffe Nero was attracting customers it was equally diluting trade for the twenty other food and café establishments in Marlborough.
“Caffe Nero definitely detracts from the viability and vitality of Marlborough,” he insisted. “It is one thing to boost national enterprise to lift us out of recession, but what is the point of that if the arrival of Caffe Nero results in two other unique and independent cafes closing?”
“Wiltshire should recognise and support the USP of Marlborough and our other fabulous towns and reject Nero’s arrogant and bully boy tactics over this application.”
And Councillor Margaret Rose added: “Marlborough town council hope that this committee will refuse this application, and will not allow themselves to be swayed by the possibility of the applicant going to appeal if they do so.”
“Although the applicant proudly states – and some might think arrogantly – that they rarely lose an appeal, this should and must not inhibit the committee from having the courage to refuse this application if they so decide, regardless of the possible cost involved.”
Read:
Richard Pitts’ Statement of Objection
Liz Rolph’s Statement of Objection
