Shisha plans go up in smoke after council says ‘no’
PLANS for a new three-storey restaurant with shisha ‘smoking balconies’ have been rejected by planning bosses who claimed the development would be ‘visually intrusive’ and go against smoking laws.
Riaz Ahmed applied to Oldham council to construct the new building on King Street in the town centre, on land which previously housed an office building.
The former office on the corner plot had been demolished after becoming structurally unsound and unsafe, and was taken down to ensure public safety, the council say.
It was proposed that the replacement building would have a mixed use as a venue where people could dine and smoke shisha, and it would be open from 9am to midnight every day of the week.
Mr Ahmed had stated that the new building would front both onto King Street and Jacksons Pit, with the main kitchen in the basement, as well as tables and seating areas.
The ground floor and first and second floors would also feature seating areas, with the top two floors also including a total of 14 balconies for shisha smoking.
But planning officers said that the modern design of the new building ‘jarred’ with the aesthetic of the neighbouring streets and that the smoking balconies would contravene the government’s smoking ban.
A design and access statement submitted by the Howard and Seddon partnership, on behalf of Mr Ahmed, said that the concept building would ‘rejuvenate’ the derelict site into an ‘attractive, unique and exciting’ restaurant and shisha bar experience.
The proposed development was ‘architecturally charismatic’, the statement said and was sympathetic with the surrounding commercial area.
“The development preserves the character and integrity of the area and its setting in providing a prestigious and charismatic piece of architecture, according to the aspect of the area and keeping its own style, not harming or threatening the existing high quality status and individuality of the area,” it concluded.
However officers disagreed, and refused to grant permission for the development.
Case officer Matthew Taylor said it would have a ‘negative impact’ on the street scene.
The proposed smoking balconies would be in contravention of the legal requirement that any smoking area should be 50 per cent open, he added, and the building as designed would not be ‘legally capable’ of becoming a legitimate shisha bar.