A family who live in the same home for 60 years claim they had almost no notice of the plans to build a new drive-through right by their house.
Jace Kendrick said that his parents, Jill and John Kendrick Jones, both in their 80s, were given almost no notice of the plans for a new large scale drive-thru right at the back of their home near Whittington.
The plans would see a Greggs, Costa and Burger King being built on the Whittington directly off the roundabout for Park Hall and Whittington.
“Mum knew there was an industrial unit going up,” said Jace.
“There was no mention of any fast food restaurants at all.
“Then the planning notices went up, which we weren’t aware of. Mum was given no notice at all.”
He said a Shropshire Council officer visited Mrs Kendrick with only a couple of days left before objections could be made.
“He said ‘you do realise what is happening next door?’” said Jace.
“Mum said ‘yes, some low level industrial units going in.’
“He said ‘don’t you realise about the Burger King, the Costa coffee, the Greggs’ – she had no idea about it.”
Mrs Kendrick was told to check the plans online, but she has no internet access and is a full time carer to her husband.
“I put in mum’s postcode and there was no notice of any planning application for Greggs or anything,” said Jace.
“It only came up if you went up to a notice and used the QR code. On that website the final day to protest it was on the Sunday, I had only gone down on the Friday, the man from the council had only been round on the Wednesday.
“We don’t actually stand a chance of putting any protest against it. We needed legal advice.”
The process has left Jace furious and worried that what has been the family home will be worthless, limiting his mums ability to downsize should she need to.
“It’s probably going to be 24 hours a day there’ll be car doors banging all night, there will be litter everywhere,” said Jace.
“I would have expected at least a letter to the house next door to at least explain what was going on.
“I’m self-employed and run the family business. We are all pretty resigned to the fact there is nothing we can do – it’s just the big boys stamping all over the little man.”
A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said: “The Case Officer monitors comments received and will take these into consideration when making a recommendation on the applications.
“Comments made will be taken into account by the Case Officer when making a recommendation in relation to each of the applications.
“The council places a site notice adjacent to, or on site. This is standard procedure; the council does not consult individual dwellings by letter. A notice adverting the Reserved Matters application was also placed in the local press, as this was necessary in accordance with procedures as it was classed as a major application. This fulfilled the council’s requirements with regards its statutory obligations and notification of planning applications.
“Any representations received will be taken into consideration in the determination of the application.
“All letters and comments are available for public inspection on the council’s online planning register.”
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