Plans to re-open petrol garage approved

Plans to re-open a long-closed petrol station in Wednesfield have been backed by a council’s planners.

City of Wolverhampton Council has approved a planning application to re-open the former Linthouse Service Station in Linthouse Lane in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, as a petrol garage and Morrisons Daily convenience store. 

The work includes demolishing the garage’s canopy roof and removing an underground tank to make for a new canopy roof, lighting and two larger underground petrol tanks. 

A new shopfront and single-storey extension would also be built alongside a new cash machine and electric vehicle (EV) charging point.

The petrol station was last used in 2011 and has in recent years been used for car sales, servicing and a shop. 

A report outlining the council’s approval said: “Whilst the site has not been used as a petrol station since around 2011, the overhead canopy, fuel pumps and the fuel price advertisement board have remained in situ. 

“As such, the site retained the character of a petrol station, despite the most recent use being as a second-hand car dealership. 

“Although the proposal involves the replacement of this overhead canopy, with a minor single storey front extension, the site would retain a similar character, but with a slight improvement in appearance from the modernised shopfront and fresh materials. 

“The proposed retail unit would be a new facility of an appropriately small scale and nature to meet the day-to-day local shopping needs of the population within convenient, safe walking distance. 

“Although the petrol filling station has to share parking with the car repairs garage, this is an existing constraint that will not change with the proposal. 

“Satisfactory parking provision for the retail unit has been provided, with an appropriate area for the navigation of small and large vehicles using or servicing the petrol station. 

“Access to facilities by means other than by car would also be improved as the proposal would be within a convenient, safe walking distance of the local residential community, and through bicycle parking provision on the site. 

“Whilst the proposal would generate a greater level of activity than the most recent use, it did at one point operate as a petrol station.”

The council’s licensing committee meets on Thursday (April 2) to decide whether to grant a new alcohol licence to the proposed Morrisons Daily at the new Linthouse Lane garage. 

The application, which was revised after submission, asks for permission to sell alcohol from the petrol garage from 7am to 11pm every day. 

The application, which was submitted in February, drew concerns from a number of authorities including West Midlands Police, City of Wolverhampton Council and the city’s environmental health and public health officers. 

However, the objections made by the responsible authorities have all been removed after additional conditions to the proposed licence were agreed. 

A number of objections have been made by concerned local residents who said the new shop and off-licence would become a “focal point for all kinds of anti-social behaviour including drunkenness, littering and criminal activity.”