Dozens of people object to new plans for petrol station and shop in Beverley

Lovel Capital Projects is seeking the final sign off from East Riding councillors on plans to develop the former factory site on Killingwoldgraves Lane.

A rival, BP Oil, gained permission on appeal last August for a petrol station on the other side of the Killingwoldgraves roundabout just 200 yards away.

A month earlier Lovel was given outline planning permission for a petrol station and a convenience store. Their latest plans, due to be discussed on April 12, suggested the shop would increase in size to 506 square metres (5,446 sq ft), but amended proposals now reduce this to around 275 square metres (2,960 sq ft).

Planners claim it won’t have a “significant adverse impact” on shops in Beverley or nearby villages. But locals argue that it will become a “destination in its own right” and put village shops in Bishop Burton, Walkington and Cherry Burton at risk.

The parish council said the drawings suggest 16 parking spaces which is “far more than are required for a four-pump petrol station where you are just picking up sweets or a pint of milk.”

It said the plans should be refused as “they are neither in the spirit nor the letter of the outline planning granted” and approving them would set a “dangerous precedent”.

However planners recommend councillors defer the plans for submission of extra landscaping details, followed by approval. They claim the plans constitute a “community facility which would be supported in the countryside to meet the needs of motorists, in a location where there is an absence of such facilities”.