‘Loss of community facility’: Council rejects plans to convert former Pontypool c-store

Plans to convert a former convenience store in Pontypool into apartments have been refused by Torfaen council.

The proposals included converting the old Premier Stores shop in Windsor Road, Griffithstown, into four apartments.

An application submitted to Torfaen council said the shop closed in 2018, but that it made a loss for five years before that.

“There is no prospect of improvement in trading – indeed quite the opposite,” a design and access statement said.

“With the present continued decline in retail trading exacerbated by the pandemic, and with this shop being close to the major shopping centre of Cwmbran, and the street already having a large local Co-op as well as a newsagent, it is not considered viable to continue trading as a retail outlet.”

The planning statement adds the opportunity for a successful shop has also been hit by a new One Stop and the prospect of a new Aldi opening near the Skewfields roundabout.

However, a Torfaen council planning report said “insufficient evidence” was submitted to justify the loss of the “centrally located and sizeable community facility”.

“A residential use of the ground floor area is considered to have a potentially detrimental impact on the trading power of the wider neighbourhood centre and would result in the loss of a community facility,” the report said.

The report says that Windsor Road operates as “a successful and well-used neighbourhood centre”, with a mix of different shops and independent businesses.

It says objections lodged to the application around parking concerns is “a testament to its popularity”.

“It is considered that there continues to be demand from the local community for local shops within the neighbourhood centre,” the planning report says.

“No contrary evidence has been submitted to demonstrate that potential commercial tenants are unwilling to occupy the unit due to rental costs, and there is no evidence of any active rental marketing of the property for commercial use.”

The plans included changing the use of the former shop into two apartments on the basement and ground floors, and subdividing an existing maisonette to form the other two apartments on the upper floors.

The proposals included demolishing an existing garage and creating a parking area to the back of the shop.

The plans were refused as the proposed use was considered to have “a detrimental impact on the trading power, viability and vitality of the wider neighbourhood centre and would result in the unjustified loss of a community facility”.