Credit: via planning documents

Issas appeal M65 service station knockback

Monte Blackburn, the brothers’ development vehicle, has appealed Pendle Council’s refusal of a petrol station and 51,600 sq ft of industrial space in Colne.

The Euro Garages scheme as proposed included a filling station and associated facilities, a drive-thru coffee shop and the two employment units. Campbell Driver Partnership is the architect and Nexus the planner for the Lancashire entrepreneurs’ proposed development.

The scheme, close to where the M65 ends in a junction with the A6068 Whitewalls Drive, was put forward in summer 2021 as a resubmission of a plan lodged earlier in the year which was withdrawn.

Nexus director Heather Lindley-Clapp spoke in the application’s covering letter of the benefits the employment space could bring to Nelson and Colne.

Pendle refused permission for the revised scheme in October 2021 on two grounds, that as an industrial scheme, it would be “out of scale and character with the surrounding countryside,” and that the retail would impact negatively on Colne town centre.

Monte Blackburn’s appeal was registered by the Planning Inspectorate at the start of March, with statements and interested party comments due in April.

The Issas – Mohsin and Zuber – are riding high in retail having taken over Asda and being rumoured as a potential bidder for Boots, but have had a troubled start to the year in local property terms.

In January, plans for an 84-acre burial site were withdrawn after Hyndburn Council recommended refusal, while a fresh consent had to be sought after work on an SME-focused industrial scheme in Oswaldtwistle went beyond the approved parameters.

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