A retrospective application by Sainsbury's to extend the operating hours of its Falsgrave Road petrol station and car wash has faced opposition from Scarborough Town Council due to ambiguous proposals and concerns over its impact on residents.
Plans to extend the opening hours of a large supermarket’s petrol station have been opposed by councillors in Scarborough.
The Sainsbury’s at Falsgrave Road, Scarborough, has applied for retrospective permission to change the opening hours of its petrol filling station and car wash services.
If approved, the petrol station could open at 8am on Sunday and a council report states that it could stay open until 10.30pm on certain days.
However, members of Scarborough Town Council have hit out at ambiguous proposals and a lack of clarity on the proposed opening hours.
Cllr Sarah Mason said she was concerned about the opening times being:
“pushed further and further, and if they push it by half an hour, will it be another hour?
“It’s also in the middle of a residential area, and I oppose it for that reason.”
Current opening hours for the petrol station are restricted by condition from 9.30am to 8.30pm on Sundays, while Sainsbury’s said it was currently operating from 8am to 7pm.
On weekdays, the petrol station’s opening is restricted to 7.30 am onwards but the supermarket chain said it was currently open from 7am.
The company stated:
“It should be noted that this is a retrospective application and that the ‘proposed’ car wash operating hours are currently being undertaken and there have been no noise complaints.”
Cllr William Stuart said he had questions about the information provided by the applicant about the proposed changes to the opening hours.
He told the committee:
“There’s a table in there, and it’s ambiguous to say the least.
“It’s ambiguous in terms of the times that are changing. It’s also ambiguous about the days of the week because it says Monday to Friday and Sunday. I hope they’re not closed on Saturday because, occasionally, I shop on a Saturday.
“There are other things in that document that I think we need to look at before we can make a proper decision.
“And it was very unclear about what exactly was changing, the car wash, the petrol filling stations, and as I said, there’s just a whole day of the week missing.”
Cllr Chris Clark said the proposal had merits because of a lack of petrol stations in the Scarborough area:
“What struck me was that petrol stations are declining in the long term, and there aren’t that many left in the country now when you think about what it was like in the 1960s.
“The reason why it’s actually relevant is that it’s quite difficult sometimes to get petrol in Scarborough, unless you know where to go first.
I do think that the availability is an issue, and I think that increasing it by half an hour would improve it a bit for the people of Scarborough.
Commenting on the car wash aspect of the application, he said:
“If it is noisy, I might be against that, so I would say yes on the petrol station and no on the car wash.”
Chair of the committee, Cllr David Knowles, said:
“When something’s not clear, it’s a no. And no means no.”
The committee voted to recommend refusal of the application at its meeting on Thursday, July 2.
North Yorkshire Council has not set a date for deciding on the application, which is currently open to representations.
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