Hooray,
At last a proposal that will benefit wivenhoe. Always thought we needed a good restaurant/winebar to make the most of one of our best assets-the river. Not all development in lower Wivenhoe should be just housing and non viable office space.

Such a shame that a similar application was thrown out when the Cooks Shipyard plans were submitted several years ago...

Yum!

This is sounding good... and kudos to Jonathan Frank for keeping us in the loop before the planning app has even gone in. It will be a pleasant change to write a supportive comment on a planning application :D

Also even though everyone has been saying office space is non-viable, I think aside from parking issues this has to do with the fact we are in the middle of a recession. People are being cautious and funding is harder to come by for businesses too. I am glad some B1 use might be kept now on the upper floors of the building .

ironic new thread re office space though perhaps ???

OMG if it's one of the above just imagine the traffic down the High Street or Anglesea Road in the evenings! But I don't think that's what he has in mind (fingers crossed!).

"Just as long as it's not a Steak n' Shake, Subway, KFC or McDonald's or
Kenny Rogers Roasters. I don't mind a Wendy's for old times sake, or a
Golden Egg, if they still exist"

A kebab shop would be nice for those 'after the pub' munchies. Needs to be a bit more central than Cooks though... it's a shame when Rollos split their building in two a funeral parlour took half the place, it would have been an ideal location...

;-)

I'm feeling hopeful  - at a squeeze we could perhaps fit at least 5 fast food stalls into a 50 seater, ranging from Harry's Hot-dogs to Crank's Grains and Greens (the latter being entirely for me), plus a wine bar. If all that existed, I'd be heading that way right now. Where are Jan and Erik - can we get them back to take on the Black Buoy?

hes not the only one who wont let things go

its ok dont worry about it

Adrian, the kebabs were fabulous, but sadly I also recall during that timeframe at the Greyhound there were more fights in the public bar at the weekends than in a cowboy saloon.

Yes, the way to Wivenhoe's heart certainly seems to be through its stomach....

Interesting to look back though at what Jonathan Frank said in his letter to area_woman which is on the Health Centre Facts thread.
http://www.wivenhoeforum.co.uk/discussion/comment/10174#Comment_10174
And worth bearing in mind that what is being proposed now is a 50 cover restaurant.

Talking about the previous application he said....

"Having first been scrutinised by the Planning Inspectorate as well as Colchester Borough
Council, planning consent was granted for our scheme. The only change being the
deletion of a Fish Restaurant that had been proposed next to the wet dock (a 1000
signature petition was presented to the planning committee by objectors who had scared
the population of Wivenhoe into thinking that we were proposing a 300 seat restaurant,
based on a totally erroneous calculation of how many people could fit into the entire area
allocated to the restaurant, without taking into consideration toilets, kitchens, stores,
lobbies etc)."

"As with all new development the devil is in the detail and as soon as Taylor Woodrow
started developing the site many, many Wivenhoe residents expressed to me how sad
they were that Lexden Restorations were not developing it. Interestingly, many expressed
their regret that there was not a restaurant in the development!"

And talking about the remaining plot of land that Lexden Restorations own (and which was considered for the Medical Centre)...

"Both the Town Council and the Planners said that their preferred use was commercial and
I was advised to submit an application to change the ground floor of the proposed building
from A1 retail use to A3 restaurant use. Following this feedback I instructed architects to
prepare a planning application which is finished and ready to submit."

whatever style food emporium might start there down the line i dont think a fast food place chained or not could then be prevented

I think it is important to bear in mind that, regardless of whether it should have been granted, there is already A1 permission on this unit.

As it stands this means some kind of food shops could be opened, for example Greggs operate from A1 retail premises and I think Subway also can be run from A1.

Of course it could also be a sold to Tesco/ Spar/ Sainsburys etc who have the kind of money and aggresive expansion policies to risk investing in a potentially unprofitable location in the current climate.

As established from the Health Centre thread, the section 106 agreement on the Cooks Development means this building has to be constructed within 12 months of the last residential building being occupied, unless an extra year can be granted if the owner can prove financing problems or a change of permission is applied for. This means something has to be built there soon. I would actively like a good restaurant -Snowrae's suggestion of a fish restaurant would seem fitting to the location, and I would be relieved that worse has been avoided.

I would have suggested 3 live/work or polyfunctional units as an alternative prior to this restaurant development. As discussed on previous threads, a lot of people are moving to towards working from home and apparently artisan/ craft units were what decision makers had in mind when demanding business premises there. The existing live/work units on cooks are getting some use for their intended purposes (see forthcoming christmas cornocopia) and there is a demand for more of this type of facility (Pru Green). The car issue is mitigated by the aim that residents would be working from home and the cost may be more manageable for the purchaser as it can be bought with a residential mortgage. Although the Pearl Walk business units may look cheap at 90k, you only get a concrete tunnel of space for this which is going to cost £10k to fit out and this cannot be paid for with a commercial mortgage. Then you have the ongoing cost of business rates, insurance, services and maintenance which you could save some money on if you worked from home. Especially for the type of craft type activity that has been identified as desirable I would have thought live/ work units would have been better suited and more commercially viable than B1 offices. However, I appreciate there are already too many people for existing infrastructure and live/work would exacerbate the problem... so a nice restaurant seems like a good option.

lets link 2 threads - could the restaurant get its fish straight off the boat - not many foods miles then for that and one less vehicle up and down

Hello Kaisercat, There's no contradiction in wanting a restaurant/winebar down by the barrier, as opposed to the medical centre. The medical centre was always going to generate more traffic and parking, whereas leisure facilities of this type attract a lot of foot traffic. Certainly not many people from lower Wivenhoe are going to drive there, and if its a good then the train could come into it's own for those further afield.

Not likely that a fast food chain would have any interest, you really do need a lot of people to make that viable.

Good though this news is, I wonder at the impact a '50 cover' restaurant will have on existing premises.

I don't see a contradiction there. One can be happy to see more dining options made available whilst being concerned that the existing establishments might suffer in the long term.
Without knowing the nature of the proposed restaurant (type of cuisine and so on) and how it will complement and/or compete with the others, it is quite reasonable to have mixed feelings.

Personally, I still think there is a potential traffic issue there, albeit less severe than with the HC.

A little competition is a good thing IMHO. It helps to keep standards up, and encourages diversity and innovation.

Here are the conclusions of the traffic impact report contained in the planning application:

Ok - that takes care of the 'highway'.... what about the impact on adjoining properties, ie noise, smell.

I'm sure the people who decided to live down on the Cooks shipyard never thought their neighbours would be eventually be a restaurant.

Interesting.

I'm sure that's possible Liz, so long as it was solely one-way traffic, and they all processed neatly to park in the Colne (with rising sea levels perhaps amphibious cars are the answer: they could simply approach by river...?!)

There is a need for a bistro type like Jardines which is open all day and where people can go for coffee and not just a meal. It could still serve only fish .Can this request go to the planners. I'n not sure how. I know I would feel disappointed to walk past and find it shut most of the day as many restaurants are.

The planning app for the restaurant is on the agenda [PDF] for the CBC Planning Committee meeting on 14th February.

SEXY, etc.

Item 7.1: Variation of Conditions 2 and 8 of application no. 091559 in order to include A3 restaurant use.

Which is basically changing the use from retail to a restaurant.

Skip to the conclusion and the recommendation from the Planning Officer is for a deferment, allowing for S106 funding on the existing agreement to be linked to the new application.

Other details cover the submission from WTC:

"Wivenhoe Town Council supports this application for local business venture. The Town Council is glad to see it is not residential development and the Town Council will not support any change of use at a later date to residential. It should be noted that the 21 space car park is under the Town Council’s jurisdiction and will become a Pay and Display car park."

Nine letters of objection were received, including:

"Insufficient parking provision.  Flaws in the traffic report which suggests no additional traffic between 8.00- 9.00 relatively little between 5.00-6.00 and the bulk between 13.00-14.00  and at weekends. No other hours have been considered the report also assesses the restaurants impact on traffic in and out of the village this is not the issue it  is the impact on the access roads to cooks shipyard.A restaurant was turned  down at the original application stage due to additional  traffic flow in an already heavily stretched traffic system.

This restaurant will add traffic through a densely populated area through narrow winding streets.  Nothing has changed. Parking is insufficient most customers wil come in from outside not on foot or by bike."

The report for the Planning Committee concludes:

"Whilst residents have raised strong objections on traffic and parking grounds the Highway Authority has recommended approval of the application. It is considered this small restaurant will provide an acceptable mix of  uses on the water front and permission is recommended."

This is an open meeting taking place at Colchester Town Hall at 6pm on the 14th. Speaking rights are limited. It is a HUGE agenda for this meeting, including the Queen Street old Police Station.

Might be a late one.