A plan by a restaurant to move the car wash in its car park is scuppered, but a former solicitors’ office in the town centre can become flats in planning this week.

Peatmoor. Last year what was once said to be the largest Chinese restaurant in Europe, Hongxin Oriental Buffet on Pepperbox Hill, once the Pagoda Palace, was given permission to put a car wash in its car park, putting up two canopies for the purpose. The permission for the car park was in the south western corner of the site.

The restaurant put the car wash to the eastern side of the site and applied for retrospective permission, which was denied, and then appealed, but the appeal was lost.

Now, again, the restaurant’s application to relocate the car wash to the eastern part of the site has been refused.

Planners at Swindon Borough Council said: “The retrospective application in the same location as this proposed application was refused and subsequently dismissed at appeal due to the effect of the development on the character and appearance of the area.

It is still considered that the proposed store building and canopies are poorly sited in a prominent position adjacent to Mead Way and would appear incongruous in relation to the surrounding area.”

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Town Centre: Developer Craig Eccleston has got the go-ahead to convert 54 Commercial Road, which is on the corner with Morse Street, back into a residential building, dividing it into four one-bedroom apartments.

It was used as part of the building used by BLB Solicitors until the company relocated in summer of 2023. The entire building is now disused.

Mr Eccleston’s application shows the end of the building, which is divided into offices currently, would be separated from the rest and feature flats at the rear and front of the ground and upper floors.

A separate application asks for permission for changes to the exterior of the building to make the flats both accessible and inhabitable has also been approved. A door has already been put in where a window was situated at the front ground floor, giving access to three of the apartments, with another door to be installed at the rear side for one flat. There will also be windows put in along the side of the building and at the rear.

Covingham: Following the granting of planning permission to Thames Water to build a new sewage pumping station on a green site between Merlin Way and the A419 to serve the houses in the New Eastern Villages, the utility company has withdrawn two related applications.

One was for a temporary access to the site which is just north of the roundabout at the off-ramp from the dual carriageway. The other withdrawn application was for a pumping station to be sited on land at Great Stall West to serve the new expansion villages.

Extensions: Applications have been submitted for permission to build extensions to houses, or to put up outbuildings or convert lofts and garages into habitable rooms at: 3 Berkeley Lawns, Lawn; 2 Merlin Way Covingham; 2 Mount Pleasant Farm Cottages, Horpit; 8 Liddington Street, Pinehurst; 41 Bridge End Road, Stratton St Margaret; 10 Brunswick Street, Old Town.

Such applications have been approved for  25 Lansdown Road, Old Town; 26 Hunt Street, old Town; 39 Ironstone Close, Redhouse; 2 Verulam Close, Stratton St Margaret; 39 Yiewsley Crescent, Stratton St Margaret; 32 Ripon Way, Park South; 40 Iffley Road, Rodbourne.

An application for a certificate of lawfulness for the conversion of the garage at 16 Winton road Upper Stratton into a habitable room has been refused.

The planning decision said that the original planning permission for the house in 2001 restricts the use of the garage to the storage of private motor vehicles only.

To be able to convert the garage would need a new planning permission form a full application.

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