£8,000 smoking shelter must go
Friday 12th September 2008, 11:45AM BST.
Kevin Sullivan, from the Miners Arms pub, in Madeley, Telford.
A Shropshire pub landlord has launched a scathing attack on council planners after he was ordered to pull down his £8,000 smokers’ shelter.
Kevin Sullivan accused Telford & Wrekin Council of trying to drive smokers away from pubs altogether and said the order to demolish the structure would severely hit his trade and upset his mainly elderly customers at the Miners Arms in Prince Street, Madeley, Telford.
See more photos below
But the council said the shelter had been put up without planning permission and was an eyesore.
Mr Sullivan, aged 55, admitted the shelter had been put up without permission by his brewery, Marstons, and a retrospective planning application submitted last year had been turned down by the council.
The brewery appealed against the decision but an inspector dismissed the appeal in July this year and gave the brewery 20 weeks to take the shelter down.
Mr Sullivan said: “I’m absolutely appalled by what the planners have done.
“They told me that the smoking shelter spoils the line of the street but there isn’t a line there in the first place.
“The shelter is really well made and was professionally designed and built.
“Around 80 per cent of my customers smoke and most of them are elderly. This now means they won’t be able to use the pub and enjoy a pint and a smoke and that’s going to really affect takings.”
Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman David Morgan confirmed that a retrospective application for the shelter was turned down by the plans board on July 11 last year.
He added: “The local planning authority considers the development is unacceptable by virtue of its size, scale, design and location, and has an overly dominant impact on the existing building, thereby failing to enhance the character or appearance of the public house or the streetscene.”
Mr Morgan said that planning officers had met Mr Sullivan and his agents to discuss options for the design and location of a replacement shelter so that a new planning application could be submitted.
By Simon Hardy
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This has nothing to do with smokers and smoking and everything to do with people who believe they can flout planning laws and get away with it. I certainly wouldnt want such an eyesore near my house and sympathise with his neighbours.
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Doesn’t look like an eyesore to me and planning permission be damnded … if you want to smoke give it a go and smoke where you can.
Hilary
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i wouldnt agree with the dramatic statement its an eysore, however i do find in hard to believe it cost 8k if it did then im closeing my business down and starting another building smokeing shelters
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im a non smoker but looking at the photos on the internet i think it looks very nice
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Eyesore? My eye is it an eysore!
Little Johnny Jumped Up the council officer should have his wings clipped, I think.
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£8000? Yer right!
There is only one person to blame here….the person who didnt bother to look into planning permision rules.
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I am NOT a smoker….but this is just typical of this goverments indirect control on local authority, they are trying to remove all aspects of decent people enjoying themselves, if people want to smoke and drink it is THEIR choice NOT the goverments…i thought we lived in a democracy?
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The smoking shelter looks better than the rest of the pub!
Doesn’t the Council have a policy to encourage and support business? Or are they on some moral crusade to drive drinking establishments out of business?
When the council come to knock it down we should all chain ourselves to it in protest!!
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looks neat and tidy to me, it’s the council again making rules for one and not the other.
My dad recently replaced his 20 year old shed in his garden with a new one and had a letter a few days later from the council to say he needed to apply for planning permission ?
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It isnt an eye sore i think now everything is about who can control who, and the pub would be an eyesore if it got closed down and bordered up, the non smoking policy has hit alot of pubs, he is trying to do something to keep his business open! I think sometimes these big shot people in the council dont care they have there big salaries and dont give a monkeys about us normal citizens who enjoy a cig outside of the pub and a pint.
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It looks a lot better than the state of some the the council estate surrounding the Madeley area
Why doesn’t the council concentrate on the bigger issue within its borough….
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It looks perfectly okay to me.
I suppose the alternative would have been to put up some form of ugly, temporary lean-to that doesn’t require planning permission.
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I’m a non smoker but to say this addition to the pub is an eyesore. There are quite a few buildings in Madeley that one could call an eyesore but they are still standing.
This is just Pure beaurocracy at it’s worst. Big brother is slowly but surely taking over our lives.
I guess one could go for a walk and smoke in the town park… NO No can’t do that either, you would be branded a potential child molestor!!! Big brother is watching there too.
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Pubs are supposed to be a part of our culture, however more than 5 pubs are closed every week… and it is stories like this that show us why! Councils should be doing everything in their power to shop this from happening, not adding fuel to the fire! The latter is true by preventing a Pub owner from creating a solution to the smoking ban, which would harm his business.
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Wow what a lot of people in favour of illegal building works. I wonder if they would be of the same opinion if someone built something next door to them without planning permission which they didnt like? The word ‘hypocrites’ springs to mind.
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you think that is an eyesore, I seen worse items given planning permission, so I say to the telford council, take a look around at some sites of the things you have given planning permission , and let Mr sullivan, get on trying to run, what in this climate a hard business to run.
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So we can’t smoke, Can’t drink, Can’t walk in the town park!,Can’t eat cos the food is full of e numbers,-What the hell is going on?.
Some democracy eh!.
The people who make the choice to emigrate have got the right idea-to late for me-but to all who can get out of this country before it’s too late.
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it looks nice enough to me, we all now planning laws dont apply to big developers or councils for example, so why screw the little guys if you wont stop tesco concreting over our fields??????
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If it was an ugly great phone mast their would be no problem getting it put up. I can’t believe you would even need planning permission for a smoking shelter, building regs may be to check it’s safe.
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just what has a publican got to do to keep his business going. telford council are technically right in asking for it to be demolished, but can they not send one of their planners out to advise the landlord of what would be acceptable.we cannot go on losing 35 pubs a week, as a drinker but non smoker i have every sympathy with the publican. you do your best to look after your dwindling band of locals only to be kicked in the nadgers by an over enthusiastic council. fair play for the miners of madely. 100 years ago the real miners of the area would have given the council a jolly good kick in the nadgers!
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There would not be this furore if the extension in question was NOT called a smoking shelter! It was not deemed illegal until the council planing officers deemed it so. I can just see non smokers as well as smokers sitting there on hazy Sunday afternoons; whiling the day away having a drink or two whilst breathing in the far deadlier than SHS carcinogenic petrol and diesel fumes from the main road! We are now living in a totalitarian state equal to the old style Russia! Get real people and stop harassing smokers! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
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I know of a pub in Shrewsbury who put up a similar structure. They applied for retrospective planning permission which was granted. So what’s the difference? I’m not a smoker but I beleive facilities should be made available if they’re not an eyesore which this structure is surely not.
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It might look like an eyesore to posh people who live in mansions, the only ugly thing I can see, is where this Country is going, it is about control.
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The government just announced we no longer need planning permission for small extensions. And as other’s have said its certainly not an eyesore. Take a look round Telford if you want to see some real eyesores and they got planning permission!!
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The level of “them and us” paranoia in Shropshire in unbelievable!!!!
Planning laws are there for everyone’s good to stop things popping up willy nilly all over the place, building regs are their to protect people.
This story should not even be linked to the smoking ban.
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Youv’e hit the nail on the head Richard, what the heck has happened to our country. We have “sleep-walked” into this. Not only the things you mention but all the cameras looking at our every move, the myriad bunch of jobsworths able to march into our houses which, until a few years ago were sacrosanct, the forthcoming ID cards, the “political correctness”, the inhibitions on “free speech”, the virtual break up of the United Kingdom and so it goes on.
The “anti-smoking” mafia have now had their way, smoking is now banned in public places and those that try to defend their livelihoods by showing initiative are damned anyway.
What I find surprising is that people still defend this Government, 20 years younger I would have been out of this country in a flash.
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You ‘pommy whingers’. I visited my home town of Shrewsbury last year and was amazed at the “no can do” attitude of the locals.
I now live in Brisbane, Australia. Luckily there are two ‘Brit-Pubs’ in our city. The major one, The Pig-n-whistle is next to The Stock Exchange in the City. It has an outside smokers Bar. What is wrong with you people!!?
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PS: Hi again, I and thousands of other Brisbane householders have a ‘Patio or Verandah’just like Kevin’s Pub. It is an excellent design. If I lived there I would pretend to smoke just to enjoy a pint outside!
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the thing is that planning permission needs to be sought beforehand – or you risk haveing your £8k shelter pulled down – it was your gamble – you lost, get over it.
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if you live in telford try seeking permission for a tortoise shelter, i did and got permission from glos council planners. all i needed was a tortoise to complete the building
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The issue is the planning permission not whether it’s pretty or houses stinky smokers. The brewery must have known the rules (due to their experience!) – they took the gamble and lost – tough.
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I bet if Tesco built a large unsightly trolly park on the new site in madeley without planning permission it would be ok, the council are just trying to ruin a business already being strangled by beurocrats, and no-smoking fascists
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I don’t think the issue is with the joys of smoking or how pretty it looks but the fact that the appropriate planning permission wasn’t saught.
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If he said he would sell his pub to a developer, who then wanted to convert it into flats or demolish it, the residents would be cheesed off and the council would be happy and give it the thumbs up.
Just look at what they did to businesses on trench lock 2.
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Note for the landlord – Tell the council you are a traveller, thats what has happened down the road from me (normal story travellers buy land, stick a load of EYESORE buildings up, apply for retrospective planning permission and because they are travellers the PC Brigade can’t say no for fear of being branded RACIST)
How sad is this country that we live in!!
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The law is the law, you can’t just do what you want. You knew the consequences so stop bleating. I am sure you can think of something else (maybe a little cheaper) to put in its place as others have done.
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So it fails to enhance the charater or appearance of a public house, what does a pub look like boarded up? Why don’t they change the no smoking policy to a smoking room for those who smoke and a no smoking room for those who don’t,,, simple really.
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Im sure you dont need planning permission for a building that doesnt even have walls! 3 or less walls and you dont need planning! This is rediculous, there is nothing wrong with it. Makes the place look nicer i think!
But again you need to look into planning these days..however i wouldnt have even thought about it as its just like something you may put on the back of your house!!! Council are just faffing around and being utterly rediculous! But what do we expect!
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Why is everyone making this an issue ? The Law is there, he gambled and lost.. that’s a fact.. In the current climate to spend £8000 is another gamble, but it was his choice. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, he should have known he neeeded oplanning permission first !!
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Why all these comments about gambling and losing? The brewery applied for retrospective planning permission which is perfectly acceptable in law. Are you insinuating that because it was retrospect it was more harshly judged than if it was applied for before being built? If so, the council are breaking planning laws and should be taken to court themselves.
Of course it’s not an eyesore, especially if you were to stand in it and look at the grotesque landscape around the Madeley area. It also doesn’t break the rules imposed by the Health Act. This is pure vindictiveness by the Council and they should be brought to book over it.
Is Telford & Wrekin the most embarrassing council in the country now? After the ludicrous parks nonsense and now this, I’m starting to feel embarrassed about living under this lot of petty jobsworths.
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I too can’t believe it cost £8,000, however it certainly isn’t an eyesore, and certainly not as much as the caravans, camper vans and burger vans that people park on their drives and that the council will do nothing about!!
In my street it clearly states on house deeds that they are not allowed to be parked on drives yet people flount this as authorities are not interested in getting involved – they only do it when it suits.
I am not a smoker but surely with the recent change in the law they should be given some help and a shelter such as this really is not a problem. More jobsworth’s by the sound of it!!
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I’ve just watched a Labour Party broadcast about “listening to” and “helping in hard times”. With 1,600 new (petty and trivial) laws a year this bunch of Labour parasites have taxed and controlled people and businesses to a standstill. This poor business is just another example of local Council politburos destroying everyday life. Forget Big Bro ‘coming’. 1984 has arrived.
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