‘No justification’ for Article Four Direction to stop new Horsham Tesco store

Horsham District Council’s Development Control North Committee rejected one and deferred five other minor applications for a proposed Tesco Express store in Brighton Road in early June.

Tesco does not need permission for a change of use as the old Silver Wok site was used as a restaurant, but submitted applications for a canopy, signage, ATM machine, air conditioning units, minor external alterations, and changes to vehicular access to HDC.

The committee rejected the ATM machine application before deferring the other five because of a lack of information, and to give the council time to explore the possibility of pursuing an Article Four Direction.

Residents at the meeting were aggrieved not at late changes to the applications themselves, but the timing of them, including stopping vehicular access to St Leonard’s Road.

Their concerns centred around the impact of opening a Tesco Express in a residential area, and traffic issues in Brighton Road.

The remaining five applications will be decided on Tuesday July 2 and the committee report stated that given previous commercial uses, it did not consider proposals would give rise to any further ‘significant adverse impact’.

It concluded: “It is therefore considered that an Article Four Direction cannot be justified on this basis.”

The Silver Wok restaurant has since relocated to Queen Street.