Retail unit approved despite highway objections, Oldham

Permission has been granted, on appeal, which allows the continued use of a building as a Class E retail shop. The Council was concerned that the retail unit would result in the on-street parking and manoeuvring of vehicles in the vicinity of the a junction and a zebra crossing will be detrimental to traffic flow and to the safety of all other users of the highway and in particular pedestrians. 

The Planning Inspector observed that there is a pedestrian crossing in front of the appeal building  and there are railings and bollards on both sides of the nearby highway.   The appeal site is located within an area that has a speed limit of 20 miles per hour. There is a further mechanism in place, in the form of speed humps, immediately before and after the pedestrian crossing, which minimises vehicles’ speed in proximity of the appeal site and the pedestrian crossing.  

The Inspector agreed that existing mechanisms, such as the railings and bollards, discourage parking in
proximity of the pedestrian crossing, and thus vehicles are parked some distance away from the junction, away from the pedestrian crossing. The on-street parking available on nearby streets does not interfere with visibility close to the junction, so as to affect the pedestrians using, or vehicles approaching, the zebra crossing.  No accidents had been recorded in the vicinity since the use commenced in February 2024.  It was also accepted that most customers would be pedestrians.