Car parking fears lead to delay over decision on hall
NEIGHBOURS THINK THAT NEW PHYSIOTHERAPY UNIT WILL ADD TO ROAD ISSUES
A DECISION on a plan to turn a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall into a physiotherapy practice offering pilates and yoga has been delayed to allow council officers to investigate fears over parking.
The plan has been submitted by Anthony Deakin for the former Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Newbold Verdon.
The Mill Lane hall, pictured, closed in 2019, and was subsequently sold by the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church, which has since found a new home in the area.
The plan was considered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s plans committee last week.
Neighbours’ parking woes were at the centre of the committee’s debate, with councillors hearing from objector Matthew Favell, who said worshippers at the hall had not caused issues, but that the change of use would exacerbate parking problems.
He added: “Residents will no longer have their parking available to them, with up to 20 cars being on the road. Returning residents will have further difficulties parking in their own streets.”
Ward councillor Mark Bools said the clinic proposal did not benefit Newbold Verdon’s residents.
He also said the junction leading onto the road was “dangerous”, adding: “The amount of traffic that flows through it, the way cars are parked, prohibits any more traffic using it.
“So adding more parked cars, you’re going to compound the problem. Protect this community asset, recognise there’s parking and highways issues and turn down this change of use this evening, because it isn’t fair to subject the residents of Mill Lane to more congestion, more traffic issues and more irresponsible parking.”
Leicestershire County Council’s highways department had no objections to the scheme, making it difficult for committee members to refuse the application on the grounds of traffic issues.
But council leader Councillor Stuart Bray said he was concerned that by approving the application, the committee was “going to be knowingly causing more parking problems in a street”.
“It causes us a real difficulty here,” said Coun Bray. “As much as my instinct would be to turn this down on parking grounds, I don’t think we’d have any ability to be able to sustain that with the existing use on the site.”
He proposed that councillors defer the application and “go back to County Hall and sit down around the table and try to find a solution, to at least find some parking so we don’t knowingly cause misery in the street, because that’s effectively what we’re doing if we approve this tonight.”
Councillor Chris Boothby said: “Small villages were never designed for the amount of houses we’ve got now – they were never designed for the amount of traffic and the unavailability of parking that we’ve got now.
“I’m in total agreement that, yes, we should defer this. Go back to highways, let’s seek further advice and see if we can alleviate this issue.”
Green verges along the road were mentioned as a possible way to increase parking spaces, but committee chairman Councillor Joyce Crooks said she had previously spoken to the local highways team and that pinning hopes on that option might be futile.
“It was only a couple of years ago that I approached with a view to taking out the verges and making parking slots for residents, and they just came back to say ‘no chance,’” she said.
The vote to postpone the decision to allow further talks was unanimous.