Post in Obstructions in Headington shopping centre

Aug 02 20:20 UTC

These pavement areas used to be the front gardens of private houses, and I
assume they now have the status of an open patio, from which the general
public is not excluded. In most cases, apart from an occasional
advertisement, they are not directly associated with the commercial activity
of the shop behind, except for access and perhaps as a viewing area for the
contents of the shop window. If I wanted to change the use of my front
garden from an amenity space associated with a private dwelling to a space
ancillary to a commercial activity, I would certainly regard this as a
change of use within the definitions of planning legislation, and I would
expect that the same would apply to the pavement areas in question. Under
these circumstances, it seems to me that if the pavement is to become a
street café, a planning application for change of use is required - but I
can't quote the relevant case law off hand!
Tony Joyce

On 2/8/08 15:48, "Jock Coats" <jock.coats@headingtonhillandnorthway.net>
wrote:

> I know we've mentioned pavement seating in Headington centre many times
> before, and we know that it is true that the landowners of shops own the part
> of the pavement abutting their frontages, but I noticed, thanks to Ruth's
> website that the planning application for Starbucks says that they are asking
> for change of use to mixed A1/A3 and change of use of part of the pavement
for
> seating in connection with the change of use of the premises.
>
> I think we've assumed that if they own it they can more or less do what they
> want on their bits of pavement, but the fact that Starbucks are asking
> permission makes me wonder if there are controls on what they can do outside.
>
> I know when Cornmarket was pedestrianised and the city was trying to
encourage