A family-run car wash that has split the community is set to close after retrospective planning permission was turned down. Planners said the business was in the wrong area and created too much noise and disruption for neighbours.
Several letters of support had been sent to Coventry City Council appealing for the car wash in the car park of the Walsgrave Club to be granted permission. They said that it was a well-run business that had become part of the community. But other neighbours objected stating the noise from the venture had made their lives a misery.
John O'Brien, secretary of the club which is on the junction of Woodway Lane and Narberth Way, explained that long-running issues with anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping on the car park and problems with travellers had stopped since the car wash – which consists of a canopy and a shipping container – had been set-up.
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He told this week's planning meeting: "We have been working really hard with the council. We are not a big business, we are a community club and a multicultural club dealing with all ages.
"We are caught between two sets of residents – one that are not particularly happy and one that is very happy. Trying to find a balance is obviously high on our agenda and we want to find a way forward, asking that the committee delays making a decision so that measures can be put in place to address the noise and explore the possibility of moving the container to the middle of the car park.
"It is important that the community is listened to and looked after. We are caught between two parts of the community and we want to help them both."
Planning agent Ritesh Patel said other options including cladding the container and reducing the height of the canopy. He added that the business was family-run. But planning officers said that while the car wash might have had an impact on anti-social behaviour, it created other problems for those living nearby.
One of the officers said: "These are not the type of uses that we encourage in residential areas. They tend to be in industrial estates or within a supermarket car park but away from residential properties because they do have an impact with the comings and goings and the appearance of this type of use."
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The call to postpone making a decision was not considered by the planning committee who voted unanimously to reject the plans.
Cllr Kevin Maton said: "It seems that the comment about this being inappropriate in a residential area is completely spot on. The problem is finding an acceptable use for the car park. Pubs seem to be selling them off for housing near where I live.
"One of the alternatives may be a properly designed facility which might be a car wash. This one seems to have been thrown together on the cheapest possible basis and has caused real problems for residents nearby."