re: Planning advice for Restaurant

construct06

i will soon be preparing a planning application for the following scenario and i am just wondering what is involved.

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A 2 storey premises which is in a small town is fronting onto a footpath and public roadway in the center of the town.

The front elevation consists of:

Left hand side: a shop window and door
middle: door leading to hallway for apartments
right hand side: a shop window and door

The sides of the building are right up to the boundaries also.

There is very little openspace associated with the property only a small back yard.

This 2 storey building has been used in the following way previously:

upstairs: living accomodation (2 no. apartments)
downstairs: video shop on one side and offices on the other

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Now here is the trick bit, if u have managed to understand the above

--The owner has now opened up a restaurant in the downstairs portion of the building without planning permission.

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i believe the path to regularising this situation will involve:

a fire cert

an application for retention of the material change of use

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is this correct?

muffler

Is permission needed for change of use?

construct06

i would have thought so.

A retaurant is a good deal different than an office.

would like to get a clear definition of:

chage of use, material change of use and material alteration...

muffler

What I can tell you is that, unless the regs have changed in the last couple of amendments, a drapery shop could be changed to a restaurant without permission providing there was no takeaway involved.

I dont know what the story is in relation to an office. I would suggest that you either trawl through the regs or contact the local planning office for confirmation of this.

antoinolachtnai

Do they cook food? How are they ventilating the kitchen? They will need to make a significant investment to make sure the expelled air doesn't disturb the apartments. If there is any ducting on the outside, I would think that planning would be needed for that (although I'm not sure).

construct06

ya, they are cooking food but it is adequately ventilated and ducting is to back of building so doesnt stand out too much.

i think there may be a difference if they are take away or not.