Officer Recommendation:
GRANT Variation of Condition 3 of 09/P2385 subject to restriction on size of seating area/maximum number of seats.

1. Proposal - Variation of Condition 3 of Planning Permission 09/P2385 the sale of food and convenience goods and alterations and extension to the existing building and external curtilage – variation to remove the restriction preventing use of part of the premises for A3 cafe/restaurant purposes.

1.2. It was noted that the current proposal was for a small café area (adjoining the in-store bakery) of 13.67sqm and with a maximum of 12 seats.

2. Existing restrictions – Officers explained the history of the site, including that when planning permission for the sale of food and convenience foods had been allowed in 2010, this had been subject to a number of restrictions on the use of any part of the store for certain uses/sales, including use as an A3 café.  Officers advised that one reason that these restrictions had been imposed, had been in order to protect the vitality and viability of the nearby Leopold Road neighbourhood shopping parade.

3. Passing Trade – Officers advised that the proposed location of the new small café, requiring the use of staircase/lift to access the proposed A3 café area from the Alexandra Road footpath, was likely to deter passing trade.

4. Parking – It was noted that there was free parking at the Waitrose store and that parking restrictions were in place for Leopold Road shopping parade (which was within a Controlled Parking Zone) which included a 20 minute restriction on free parking bays.

4. Discussion – Members expressed concern that the proposed new café area would be treated as a café by customers and would take trade from the existing outlets in the Leopold Road shopping parade and that the existing restrictions originally imposed to help protect the Leopold Road shopping parade were still needed especially due to the retail environment being even more fragile that when the restrictions were first imposed and there being now two vacancies in the shopping parade.

5. Refusal Motion:  It was moved and seconded that permission be refused as detailed below.  The motion was carried by 9 votes to 1 (Councillor Ross Garrod dissenting).  Subsequently the Committee agreed that officers be delegated authority to agree the detailed grounds of refusal and also agreed (C) below.

Decision: Item 5 - ref. 15/P2776 (Waitrose, Alexandra Road, Wimbledon, SW19 7JY)

(A) subject to detailed grounds of refusal being agreed in accordance with (B) below, REFUSE permission on grounds relating to the following -

(i) The proposals would be contrary to the policies outlined on pages 23 & 24 of the officer report including –

(a) National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012) – Section 8

(b) London Plan (March 2015) – Policies 4.8 & 6.7

(c) Merton Sites and Policies Plan (July 2014) – Policies DM.R1, DM.R2, DM.R4 & DM.D4.

(B) Delegation: The Director of Environment & Regeneration be delegated authority to agree the detailed grounds of refusal, including any appropriate amendments, additions and/or deletions to the proposed grounds/policies.

(C) Reasons for not following Planning Officers' recommendation for permission: The Committee considered that the officer report had given insufficient weight to relevant Council policies.