Wellington vet’s extension plan approved despite parking fears

Haygate Veterinary Centre, at Haygate Road, applied for planning permission for a single-storey front extension to house the scanner which can take detailed 3D pictures of animals’ insides.

But residents’ fears of more parking problems in the area lead to a flurry of objections and the support of Telford & Wrekin Council highways experts.

One resident said the current car park “cannot cope with the current amount of customers which causes people to abandon the cars on the main Haygate Road and side roads causing obstructions including access to our drives.”

They also told the council that people were “using their car horns at all hours.”

Another resident said that “staff and visitors often block the side roads which we live on and then cause near accidents.”

Concerns were raised that more services at the vet would increase the “number of illegally parked vehicles and increase risks to the local residents.”

Highways officials at the council “initially shared some of the concerns outlined within the residents, and town council’s, consultation comments.

“At busy periods throughout the day the car park associated to the veterinary centre can struggle to fully accommodate staff, customers and deliveries.

“The Local Highways Authority were concerned that a potential increase to the operation of the establishment could potentially lead to an exacerbation of the existing issues experienced.”

Officials said that the applicant had confirmed there would be “no additional traffic generation” from the change as “no further consultation rooms” were a part of the proposals.

But the officials had spotted that “car parking is currently ad-hoc, in that no spaces are marked out.

“This can then lead to the car park not being fully utilised which then has the potential to lead to an overspill of vehicles onto the adopted highway in the vicinity of the site.”

Highways experts called for the car park to be formalised, white lines painted and improvements made to the surface.

“This should then stop any inconsiderate parking and maximise the number of spaces for staff, customers and delivery drivers,” they told their planning colleagues.

Planners have now approved the extension and told the vets that they must carry out work on their car park before the extension is built.

“The (car park) space shall be maintained thereafter free of any impediment to its designated use for the lifetime of the development,” planners told the vets.

Haygate is a part of the Norfolk-based company CVS and a spokeswoman, at the time the planning application was lodged, said the scanner would be used to diagnose injuries and illness in local cats, dogs and other small animals.

The practice has an X-ray machine but that produces 2D images to a 1cm precision and the new CT scanner will allow them to take 3D images to a 2mm precision.

“This will mean we can pick things up sooner, will help us to plan surgery more accurately, and will enable us to diagnose more complex illnesses without the need for referral to distant specialist sites,” said the spokeswoman.

Agents at Barron Design Ltd had told Telford & Wrekin Council planners that an extension of the building, using underused external spaces, is the optimum solution.

They add that the new development will maintain all existing access requirements and no extra traffic will be generated.

“The extension will provide a service which is complimentary to the existing use, so there is no additional traffic generation and therefore no change to the existing access arrangements or car parking provision on the site,” the planning documents said.