Future of Indian-style takeaway 'Chai' tea shop in doubt

THE future of an Indian-style takeaway ‘chai’ tea shop off a main road to and from Blackburn town centre is in doubt.

Muhammad Qasim Hussain opened the premises on vacant land off Whalley New Road in Roe Lee.

But the timber building he constructed was larger than the one Blackburn with Darwen Council had granted him planning permission for in November last year.

Now his backdated application to regularise the building has been turned down by planners on road safety and flood risk grounds.

Hussain intends to fight the refusal but if he fails could be required to knock the existing cabin down and replace it with one meeting the dimensions of the original planning permission.

He has six months to appeal the decision.

The council’s refusal notice says: “The proposed site access/egress point is via a narrow unmade side street, and in the event of on-street parking on that part of Laburnum Road, appropriate vehicular access to the development site would fail to be provided.

“It has not been adequately demonstrated that the proposed development would not be at an unacceptable risk of flooding and the level of risk from the effects of climate change in another location would be increased.”

The unit sells karak chai, a tea that originates from the street markets of Delhi, India, alongside a range of light snacks. It employs six people.

A report by planning officer Christian Barton says: “The application site is a formerly vacant piece of land.

“An unauthorised timber clad freestanding building has been sited together with timber boundary treatments.

“The application is a resubmission of a previously approved proposal with a number of amendments applied to the size of the building and within the site.

“In comparison to the previous application, this proposal now involves a parking area with access gained from an unmade part of Laburnum Road.

“Objections have been made by Blackburn with Darwen Highways.

“Parking is extremely constrained in this area and local residents rely on this part of Laburnum Road for on-street parking.”

The report says Hussain’s proposed flood mitigation measures ‘are deemed to be impractical and inadequate’ adding that ‘the larger building erected would displace greater levels of water in times of flooding, thereby increasing the risk of flooding for adjacent properties’.

Hussain’s agent Nazia Shah, of Urban Future Planning Consultancy Ltd, said: “A request was made for this application deadline to be extended as the client was awaiting for his Flood Risk Assessment, however the case officer chose to refuse the scheme.

"A similar scheme was approved with no highway restrictions. As such we will be resubmitting the scheme with a Flood Risk Assessment and then taking it to appeal."

(Local Democracy reporting Service)