A NEW drive-thru coffee shop can be built on an Asda car park at the cost of 66 spaces, Bury Council’s planning committee has ruled.

Euro Garages, owned by the billionaire Issa brothers from Blackburn, has been granted planning permission for the new coffee shop at the Asda site in Radcliffe.

The company has recently received planning permission for 37 new roadside services with petrol stations and drive-thrus including a Starbucks in Bolton.

But the location of the new coffee shop at the store’s car park in Pilkington Way will result in the removal of 78 spaces and create only 12 new ones.

Radcliffe West councillor Mike Smith told the planning committee on Tuesday that this goes against the council’s plans to expand parking in the town as part of its recently released strategic regeneration framework (SRF) for the area.

He said: “On the one hand, Radcliffe’s got inadequate parking, and on the other hand, developments are removing parking. I just fail to see the logic.”

The ward councillor also said the development would “magnify” congestion on the site already hosts a McDonalds drive-thru and the Asda supermarket.

Radcliffe East councillor Rhyse Cathcart, who chairs the town’s regeneration group, also expressed concerns that the application “does not fall in line” with the council’s proposals which are currently undergoing a public consultation.

He asked the committee to delay a decision until the consultation is complete.

But the council’s planning chief David Marno warned the committee to not overvalue a document that holds “no legal weight” in planning law.

Radcliffe North councillor Sharon Briggs said:  “It doesn’t seem right. If we approve this application tonight, we’re removing parking spaces from the town centre when part of the SRF plan is to up the parking availability to try to bring more people into the centre.

“You’re sort of taking away and then giving back. We’re not going to gain anything. But I understand what the planning rules are and we’ve got to go with that.”

Radcliffe West councillor Tony Cummings, another member of the planning committee, said he was in the same “quandary” as his colleagues.

He said: “The only thing is, if we were to turn it down it would then be open to appeal by Euro Garages and I suspect that maybe the balance would be on their side because in planning law I can’t see any real reason for turning it down.”

The application was approved at a virtual meeting of the planning committee with all councillors except for James Mason voting in support of the plans.