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Common sense saves premises
Page 19
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A COVENTRY operator succeeded in getting his Operator's Licence renewed last week — despite renewed objections, on planning grounds, from Coventry Council.
But the West Midlands Licensing Authority, Arthur Crabtree, sounded a general warning when he told the court that, although it had no jurisdiction in planning mat ters, the results of any planning action would bear directly on his decision — and if an operating centre was unlawful he could clearly no longer license it. The operator, John Ashby, trading as J. Ashby (Garden Supplies), told the court that he had been at his current premises for the last seven or eight years.
He had originally operated as a coal merchant but had changed to garden supplies business for health reasons. The premises had been used as a commercial vehicle base for something like thirty years.
For the city council, Mrs Diane Alder said that a planning notice had been served on Mr Ashby telling him to stop using the premises for his business.
An appeal had been lodged against that notice and a public inquiry was to be held later that month. She anticipated that a decision would be made on that appeal within one to three months.
Asking the LA to refuse the application, Mrs Alder said that in other cases the LA had held that dwelling houses were not suitable as an operating centre.
Mr Crabtree said that although he felt that a dwelling house was in principle not suitable, he had to take a common sense view when it had been so used for 30 years.
After hearing that the planning inquiry might well take • over 12 months to resolve, Mr Crabtree renewed the licence for two years.