The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council decided “to grant planning permission” for Blackstone Pharmacy to relocate into an extended barbers and sandwich shop, it last month revealed (July 26).
Planning officer Hannah Cook said she had “no objection to a change of use to this existing premises” - Tony’s Barbers Shop and In Bread takeaway - “with the proposed change of use to a pharmacy”.
She added that “the proposed alterations to the shopfront will change the appearance of the building”.
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But she said that the changes would “somewhat enhance [it] through removing…unauthorised and unsightly external shutters”, adding that the visual alterations were “welcomed and encouraged”.
After the plans were previously rejected by government inspectors in May, the “revised proposal has significantly reduced the height of the proposed extension”, decision documents said.
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The reduced extension “is no longer considered to form a contrived design”, they added.
The change will also “offer social and economic benefits by providing a new pharmacy facility in an accessible location and make efficient use of the site and provide employment opportunities,” they said.
“More accessible”
After being originally turned down by the council, Planning Inspectorate officials had dismissed a previous appeal to extend the premise, calling the plans “harmful to the character and appearance of the area”.
The site’s inspector also claimed the proposed “design of the building [was] not characteristic of the existing traditional terraced properties nearby and would…appear contrived and awkward”.
At the time, pharmacy owner Amjad Khan told C+D that that the plans to move would give Blackstone Pharmacy more space and access to “two consultation rooms for more services”.
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Khan, who already owns both the sandwich shop and barbers' premises, said that he’s “been in this area for quite a while” and that the new location is only “under a one-minute walk” from the current pharmacy building.
“We've surveyed the local population…and they were happy for us to move” because the building is “closer to the [GP] surgery” and “more accessible”, he told C+D at the time.
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“At the moment, we're on a residential street…and we run next door to religious facilities so a lot of the time we don't have enough parking for local residents or it gets quite overcrowded,” he added.
He told C+D that with GPs being “underfunded and having less time to see common conditions”, the extensions would “help [Blackstone] facilitate the Pharmacy First service”.
“We do require this extra space,” he added.
