Store told to remove parcel locker over traffic worries

Shoppers will need to find somewhere else to collect their online purchases from after councillors decided that a parcel locker outside an Exhall convenience store could lead to traffic chaos.

InPost UK had applied for retrospective planning permission for the locker which had already been installed to the front of a convenience store on Coventry Road near to a busy junction but the application was rejected on Tuesday (Jan. 17) at the planning committee meeting of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.

The recommendation from the planning officers was that the plan be refused due to the harm caused to the character and appearance of the area, the residential amenity impacts and the highway safety impacts.

Cllr Damon Brown (Con, Exhall) said: “This property is situated within Coventry Road, Exhall, and within 100 metres or so of the intersection with Bayton Road and the traffic lights there. Bayton Road Industrial Estate is the biggest in the borough and it is a major junction suffering from a lot of congestion.

“There are double yellow lines outside this property and also a bus bay and bus stop. We have a situation where people are pulling up in the bus bay to get parcels.

“The applicant says it takes 15 seconds to get a parcel. That may be the case if you are Usain Bolt and you have Lewis Hamilton’s pit crew to get you to stop, get out the car, pick up the parcel and get off.

“It is a really poor site for this type of thing. There are several other sites of these lockers around the town. In Sainsbury’s just around the corner it is in the car park and in Tesco in Bedworth it is in the car park where people can pull off and park safely.

“This is an absolute recipe for chaos and I absolutely hope that you abide by the officer’s recommendation and refuse.”

The committee heard from a local resident who explained that up to ten buses stopped in the bus bay every hour and that large vans servicing the lockers stopped on the double yellow lines and have also blocked access to a neighbouring house.

Those concerns were echoed by Cllr Brian Hammersley (Con, Bede) who said: “This road is not the correct position for this. It would be far better at the Co-op over the road which has a car park.”