Wedding plans cancelled

A Sikh temple’s plans to host up to 30 weddings with up to 881 guests each time has been rejected by council planners in Telford.

But highways officers at Telford & Wrekin Council say their opposition could change of the operators of the Gurdwara at Abbey House, Priorslee, can come up with a more detailed traffic management plan.

Planners at the council were told that the owners have conducted prayer services, funerals and charity events with 800 people on site on “multiple occasions’ with “no disruptions.”

The temple in Whitechapel Way already has permission to host up to five weddings with fewer guests allowed, but the venue wanted to hold more, with more guests. Planning documents say the 881 number is the capacity of the building.

Planners were told that there is a “cultural significance in wedding ceremonies” being held in the town where the bride lives.

“But our girls are being forced to get married in Wolverhampton or Birmingham where there is no such restriction”

Planners ruled out the application to change a condition on the building writing that the “proposal would provide an insufficient quantity of car parking to support the intensity and frequency of weddings proposed.”

This, they added, “has the potential to result in local parking issues.”

Local businesses took issue with a claim made in a report accompanying the application which said they had “permission to use the neighbouring car parks of the PDSA and the Learning Community Trust when major events take place.”

But Robert Beck of the PDSA wrote that contrary to the claim “the applicant does not have consent to use the Learning Community Trust Car Park which is owned by PDSA.

“PDSA has granted ad hoc consent for the applicant to use our head office car park occasionally at weekends for weddings/special events and will continue to consider such requests.

“However, there is no intention to permit the use of our car park on a more regular basis.

“We are also concerned about the proposed increase in the number of weddings. We need constant access to our site and the proposed lifting of all restrictions may cause congestion and disruption.

“There is also a risk that parking on Shifnal Road, and either side of Whitechapel Way could restrict access to our head office car park and the car park of Corner House.”

The council has this week told the applicant that they have “not mitigated site specific highway issues. This, they add has “the potential to impact on neighbouring surrounding uses by virtue of disruption through off-site car parking.”

Highways experts at the council said that their ‘biggest concern” about the plan to host up to 30 weddings per year at weekends for “up to 881 people” is with overflow parking.

The site is just off Priorslee roundabout and even with some extra parking provided by neighbouring establishments, there is a “strong likelihood that an event of 881 guests would bring with it an overspill of vehicles” onto Whitechapel Way and Shifnal Road.

But the highways department at the council say its opposition “would not prejudice any future planning applications or submission of revised information.”

The applicant would have to say how they would deal accordingly with a wedding event of up to 881 guests and how they would mitigate against any overspill of parked vehicles onto the adopted highway in the vicinity of the site.

The applicant could also have a formal agreement to confirm long-standing use of other private car parks, highways experts add.