A food stall has been “removed” outside a historical Derby building after it was ruled to be “visually intrusive” and harmed the property’s appearance.
A retrospective application was submitted to Derby City Council last year by Sizzle Spot to continue having a stall outside what was orignally known as the Carnegie Library building on Pear Tree Road in Normanton.
The stall was selling takeaway food including sizzler dishes, burgers and fries.
Now known as “Pear Tree Plaza”, the building was the former home of Pear Tree Library and used to be owned by the city council before the authority declared it surplus to requirements.
The structure, built in the early 1900s, is included on the city council’s local list of important buildings.
Over the last few years it has been running as a shopping complex.
Planning documents state the black food stall was temporary and functional in appearance, resembling “a domestic shed”.
When considering the application, planning chiefs said the food stall was “unlikely to create an over-saturation [of food outlets] in this part of the centre [Normanton shopping precinct] that would be of concern”.
However, concerns were raised about the stall’s location in connection with the heritage impact of the building.
Council bosses concluded: “This highly visible siting means that the cabin partially obscures a significant portion of the main frontage, including several of the large ground floor windows that are key part of building’s architectural character.”
The council’s decision report added: “It is visually intrusive and unsympathetic to the setting of the historic building.”
Sizzle Spot later appealed the decision by the city council. This meant a Government-appointed Planning Inspectorate made the final call.
The business and its representatives argued the converted library itself has unobscured large black and gold signage displayed on the central element of the northern elevation.
It also stated that various banner advertisements are displayed around the perimeter boundary of the building.
But the inspectorate (named as K Mee in official documents) ruled in favour of the council’s decision to refuse.
The inspectorate’s report reads: “The development’s poor-quality, incongruous appearance is highly visible in the street scene, despite the boundary treatment and presence of mature trees across the frontage.
“The food cabin does not therefore represent high-quality development, is not in keeping with the character and appearance of the surrounding area and causes harm to the setting.”
When we visited the building on Monday (June 8) the black stall was not there.
A Derby City Council spokesperson said it understood “the food cabin has been removed”.
Written by Nigel Slater (Local Democracy Reporter)
