There’s a planning application for a car wash at the front of Rayleigh station, it’s application 12/00158/FUL
You can download the officers report here (it’s the third item).
Officers recommended approval of the scheme:
Twenty one existing parking spaces would be lost by the proposed car wash facility in comparison to the ten that were proposed to be lost within the previous application. When viewing the existing facilities available to commuters it should be noted that there is a large car park to the west and a further smaller car park to the north. In addition to this, there are regular buses to the station and a ten minute walk away are also the public car parks within the High Street of Rayleigh. Upon viewing, it does not appear that all of the area of this small car park is currently being used for parking.
The supporting statement submitted with the application from National Car Parks Ltd. explains that the premier reserved parking bays have sat unoccupied for at least 6 months and were empty prior to that in a sporadic fashion for around two years. In addition this statement explains that ?the main car park itself is never any more than 85% (we take occupancy data daily) occupied being at least 100 empty spaces each day close to the Service Man garage?. Therefore it is not considered that the loss of twenty one spaces at this site would result in insufficient parking spaces for commuters.
However it would cause the loss of 21 car parking spaces. Rayleigh Town Council have objected, and 4 residents have written in to object. There is also a petition objecting to this signed by 62 taxi drivers and 197 commuters.
The item has been ‘called in’ by at least one councillor and so will be decided at the next meeting of the Development Committee.
As always, District Councillors have to stay unbiased in advance of the meeting but any comments here would be welcomed.
How does any hose pipe ban etc effect car washing? Both domestically and in running a business venture.
Rayleigh’s water is supplied by Essex and Suffolk, which currently is not subject to a hosepipe ban.
If there was a ban, then domestically, you can’t use a hosepipe to wash your car, however a car washing/wheelie bin cleaning business is exempt (at the water companies discretion) and can continue to wash cars etc.