AN application to create a new cafe in the car park of a restaurant has been refused over fears it could make traffic on busy Great Horton Road even worse.

Proposals to install a shipping container in the car park of Bharat Bar and Grill ,and then convert the metal structure into a chai cafe, were submitted by Jasvinder Maharaja in July.

The cafe, which would be called Lahori Chai, would also have an outside seating terrace - also based in the restaurant’s car park area - which fronts onto Great Horton Road.

But refusing the application last month, planning officers at Bradford Council pointed out that the existing car park was already too small for the restaurant, and displacing parking spaces by creating a new food business could cause serious highways issues.

They also argued that a metal shipping container would be an “alien feature” in an area where most buildings are built of stone.

Great Horton Road is already one of the busiest streets in Bradford, with its numerous food businesses attracting large crowds, especially during the evening.

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A number of traffic calming and road improvement schemes have been proposed in recent months to make the road safer.

There is a petrol station next to the restaurant, and double yellow lines in front of the business.

Officers said: “This restaurant has a car park to the rear with 14 spaces and the proposal is to dedicate three of these spaces to the cafe use, therefore reducing the number of spaces to the restaurant.”

They claimed there was already a shortfall of spaces at the restaurant, with the 14 spaces being less than half what a restaurant that size would normally be required to provide.

The cafe would require at least a further three spaces.

Officers said: “There is a short stretch of unlimited parking on the site side of Great Horton Road, however neighbouring businesses have no off street parking, and therefore it is likely that this is already well utilised.

“There are no parking restrictions on the southern side of Great Horton Road, however, those parking here would be required to cross the busy classified road.

“Patrons are likely to be short stay and therefore they may risk parking indiscriminately on existing waiting restrictions, along the site frontage for convenience, to the detriment of highway safety.

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“The proposal for a new cafe alongside existing restaurant, already suffering from lack of off-street parking, would further intensify the use of the site, and would lead to overspill parking on the highway where the demand is already high, and potentially indiscriminate parking on a busy classified road, to the detriment of pedestrian and highway safety.”

Referring to the appearance of the proposed new business, Officer said: “The predominant use of materials in this setting fronting Great Horton Road is stone with the host restaurant and adjacent petrol station being the notable exception.

“In this respect the design of the metal (steel) container is an alien and dissonant feature which is out of keeping in locality. It has a clear open view along Great Horton Road where the design of the metal structure is visually jarring amongst the masonry surroundings materially harming the visually amenities of the area.”