Angus planners are recommending the go-ahead for a Domino’s on Carnoustie High Street despite a 100-signature petition against the pizza outlet.
Next week, the area’s development standards committee will make a decision on Tayside franchisee Henry Dawes’ latest expansion of his £7.5 million-a-year pizza empire.
It employs 200 people across five outlets.
And council officials say there are no planning reasons to justify refusal of the application.
Neither the authority’s roads or environmental health departments have made any objection.
Planning officers also say commercial competition is not a relevant consideration after some objectors complained it might affect rival businesses.
Vacant shop
The application site is a currently empty shop unit on the corner of High Street and Station Road.
And it’s led to one objector gathering up 100 signatures against the idea.
M Fagan has submitted the petition to Angus Council as one of several local letters of representation.
It states: “There is no need or want for a Domino’s in Carnoustie as they already deliver here from Panmurefield and there is no appropriate parking for another takeaway shop especially in this proposed location.
“Please take on board our opposition to this as we do not want a Domino’s chain pizza shop in Carnoustie.”
Another critic suggests Carnoustie doesn’t want big name chains.
Ian Frier said: “Multi-nationals are not suited here, as Costa found out.
“We should learn lessons from that!”
The coffee giant announced the closure of its High Street branch in late 2022.
Another opponent, Grant Wilson said: “Almost inevitably there would be an upsurge of illegal parking as clients ‘nip in’ to collect their orders.
“This has the potential to disrupt traffic movement, especially that of buses and larger vehicles.”
Planners’ position
The bid is recommended for conditional approval by the planning department.
They say: “A hot food takeaway is a use that attracts visitors and development plan policy advocates a town centre first approach for uses of this nature.
“Around 11% of the ground floor commercial units within the town centre area are in use as hot food takeaways.
“There is no evidence that a further unit of this nature in an accessible town centre location would have any significant adverse impact on the character of the area or the health or wellbeing of the community.”
And they add: “One of the issues raised relates to impact on similar business uses in the area.
“However, competition between businesses is not a material planning consideration.
“Similarly, it is not appropriate for the planning system to favour one individual over another due to their identity.”
Successful franchisee
Mr Dawes serves up more than 600,000 pizzas a year from branches in Dundee and Angus.
And he previously said he was determined to work alongside other local businesses.
The businessman is currently creating a town centre Forfar outlet next door to a long-established takeaway.
“It’s my job to make sure we don’t have any negative impact on our surroundings and our neighbours,” he said.
“We’re not out to try to hurt anybody’s business – the absolute opposite.
“We’re not a big corporate company out to annoy people, it’s my franchise and I hope I look after our people and the area that we are in as well as we can.”
“We already deliver to our Carnoustie faithful from our stores in Panmurefield and Arbroath, but we’re aware it’s quite a long way.
“We’re hoping to be able to open a local store so our customers can not only receive their orders a bit quicker but also benefit from our collection deals.”
A council target date to make a decision on the application passed in January.
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