An East Lancashire garage owner can stay in business after councillors overturned their officers’ recommendation to reject a backdated planning application for the continued use of the lower ground floor and yard of his home as an auto-repair shop. The vote to grant approval came despite Hyndburn planning committee on Wednesday being told by its experts that the proposal for 295 Burnley Road, Accrington, was ‘out of place in the residential area’.
He said: “Before this application there had been no complaints about the premises. Mr McVicker has looked at alternative industrial units but as a one man band he would be unable to afford them. Peel ward’s Cllr Clare Pritchard said: “I am all for business and enterprise but this is a tricky one. It is a dwelling house not a business premises.”