The businessman behind a takeaway bid for an Angus village says he’s not giving up on the £80,000 dream.
Kevin O’Donoghue wants to site the cabin café in a car park beside Newtyle public park.
The 63-year-old says he’s confident it would be an asset to the village.
But Angus planners knocked back the hot food takeaway application.
They say it breaches policy and could lead to noise and odour for residents in a housing site which is yet to be built on.
Mr O’Donoghue has been working on the idea for around 18 months.
He ran the Commercial Hotel in the village for a number of years.
And he plans to appeal the refusal to Angus Council’s development management review committee as soon as possible.
Decision delays
“This has been going on for a long time – I was promised a decision in July so it’s taken a while to get to this stage,” he said.
“I think this could be really good for Newtyle.
“It would be a log cabin with some seating inside where people could stop for light snacks, coffees, teas and so on.
“The car park is a really popular spot for the footballers, families and people visiting Newtyle to go on the railway paths.
“It would also have a disabled toilet, which doesn’t exist in the village at the moment.
“And my plan is for it to be a seven-days-a-week operation so it would be creating jobs.
Car park upgrade
He plans to re-surface the potholed car park, which is owned by Kinpurnie Estate.
“We could even out in an electric vehicle charging point,” said Kevin.
“I’ve been working on this for about 18 months and I would reckon we’re looking at a total investment of about £80,000.”
Although the plan didn’t go before councillors, it divided local opinion.
“I’m disappointed it’s been refused. But I’m not surprised,” Kevin said.
“Environmental health had concerns and I submitted a 34-page dossier about the extraction system which we would be using.”
But the key factor in the delegated refusal decision was the allocated housing site to the east of the car park.
Planners said a takeaway beside the land could compromise the development of the site.
Kevin added: “This has been allocated for goodness knows how long and nothing has ever been done with it.
“I don’t think the houses would get any more noise than they would with the football pitch and park already there.
“I just don’t think it’s been given enough consideration so we’ll definitely be appealing the decision.”
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