BRADFORD Brewery’s expansion plans have suffered a setback after council planners refused its bid to open a new premises in Saltaire.

The company, based on Rawson Road in the city centre, had applied to convert a disused shop on Saltaire Road into a new bottle shop, delicatessen, and a 60-person capacity micropub.

Bosses said they hoped the business would make a "positive contribution" to the setting of the world heritage site, but planners said the site would be detrimental to highway safety and the lives of local residents.

In a statement supporting the plans, the brewery said: “This site has had a number of short-term tenants over the past ten years, including a car sales lot, an off-licence, a furniture shop and a carpet shop.

“The proposal here is for the operation of a single ground-floor room as a ‘micro-pub‘ and bottle shop, selling local produce for consumption on and off the premises.

“This mixed form of operation is relatively new and has already been acknowledged as being a successful addition to local facilities elsewhere, with no significant implications for nearby occupiers.

“It is considered that the proposals fall outside the normal definition of a public house and are of such small-scale that there are unlikely to be any significant implications for local amenity.”

The application also stated that supporting the micropub would be “in-keeping” with other recent approvals in the area for The Cap and Collar, Bar 56, and The Bar, noting that the site was located less than 45m away from a large public car park.

Plans by other applicants to turn the building into a bar were refused in 2012 and May of this year, and council planning officer Laura Eastwood said previous objections to those similar proposals had “not been overcome.”

“There is an extensive history of attempts to change the use of this premises to a drinking establishment,” she wrote.

“It is unclear what the ratio of retail sales and eating and drinking on the premises will be, but this is a a fairly substantial unit and the floor area dedicated to drinking on the premises will be difficult to control.

“It is likely that the predominant use of the premises will be as a drinking establishment and potentially not what is considered to be a “micropub” given the size of the unit.

“It is accepted that there are several existing pubs and takeaway businesses and a busy main road in the immediate vicinity.

“However, it is considered that a drinking establishment will result in more noise and disturbance to surrounding streets than the existing arrangement.

“It is therefore considered that the proposal will have a detrimental impact on residential amenity.”

No-one from Bradford Brewery was able to comment on whether the plans would be re-submitted at a later date.