Residents object to plans for new Co-op on car park of vacant Dinnington pub

The Squirrel pub, on Laughton Road, has been vacant for ‘a couple of years’ according to planning documents, and a new shop is proposed to ‘meet the needs of local residents’.

Planning documents state neither the pub or its beer garden would be affected by the new building, which is proposed as a separate structure on the car park of the former pub, facing Laughton Road.

The proposed opening hours of the store are 6am-11pm each day and it will carry a ‘basic range of groceries, ready meals, sandwiches and snacks, beers, wines and spirits and a range of fresh fruit and vegetables’.

The new store will have a net internal area of 401sq metres and would be constructed in brickwork with grey slates and grey windows.

Thirteen letters of objection have been received from residents, including one from Dinnington Town Council.

Residents say another supermarket is not needed in Dinnington and Laughton Road and the mini roundabout connecting Beck lane and Outgang Lane ‘cannot cater for the additional traffic'.

Other objections state the effect of extra traffic on the safety of school children, and the viability of nearby shops.

The town council says the pub is ‘a community facility the community wishes to see protected’.

An officer report, however, states the majority of the new store will not fall within the Important Community Facility boundary plan as set out within the Neighbourhood Plan.

“Moreover, clearly the intention of both Local Plan and the Neighbourhood Plan is to protect the pub itself rather than incidental curtilage.

“The pub will still retain a significant curtilage with adequate parking and outside drinking space,” it adds.

“The number of car park spaces proposed is above that required during peak demand, and as the adjacent public house will have no loss in the total number of parking spaces, then some of these spaces may also potentially be used by visitors to the proposed store.”

The scheme is recommended for approval at the next meeting of Rotherham Council’s planning board, on September 22.