Walsall’s Planning Committee granted permission for yet another hand car wash in-spite of opposition from local residents. This particular car wash is a bit bizarre in that it will be sharing a site with a restaurant up in New Invention.

Lib Dem Cllr Ian Shires spoke against the application in support of the residents. Ian said after the meeting that he was disappointed with the outcome as he felt that having the two businesses on the same site would create problems. “I know that conditions have been applied to the planning permission which are supposed to prevent the car wash operating when the restaurant is open” said Ian “but you can image the temptation to keep the car wash open beyond the permitted hours particularly during the summer months. You have to ask what happens about deliveries to the restaurant during the da when the car wash has permission to operate. I’m not sure that wind blown spray containing brake dust and road grime go well with food delivery.”

Restricted entrance to access road to car park

Ian spoke at the meeting of the potential for traffic chaos around the popular shopping precinct at The Square on the Lichfield Road in New Invention due to the added vehicle movements. “In particular” said Ian “cars coming off the car wash will be joining the access road to the busy car park at the back of  The Square which as well as being narrow is used for deliveries to some of the shops on precinct.”

Other points that were raised included concerns about the effect the new business might have on the many services operating from The Square. “It’s a major bus inter-change” added Ian “We already have complaints about buses running late or missing due to traffic pinch points elsewhere. The last thing we need is to add to the woes of the long suffering bus passenger.”

When it came to the vote eight councillors voted to grant the application with six councillors voting against.