Cycle cafe plan rejected over lack of parking

Plans for a cycle cafe in South Wales were rejected over a lack of car parking. The proposal would have seen a cycle cafe at Llantarnam Lakes in Cwmbran, Torfaen.

The applicant, Kelly Eroglu, said she would provide spaces to park bikes but not cars. Her application noted that there were four bus stops within 15-yards (14 metres) of her proposed site and that on-street parking is also available.

“With the proposed location of the coffee shop being at the edge of the industrial estate and within easy reach of several housing estates, the main target customers will be foot and not car-based,” she wrote in her application.

Eroglu said she had negotiated dedicated staff parking 350 metres away. However, Torfaen County Borough Council has rejected the plan.

Councillors voted against the proposal after opposition from the highways and transportation department, who said the walk between the cafe and staff car park was too far and that many visitors would travel by car. In their objection, the councillors wrote: “There is no off-street parking available within the site and extensive on-street parking already takes place on the streets surrounding the site and in Llantarnam park as a whole and any additional vehicles parked on street would only exacerbate an already unsatisfactory situation.Cycle cafe plan rejected over lack of parking."

Eroglu, who planned healthy cooking classes at the cafe for teenagers as well as wellbeing courses, is to appeal to the Welsh inspectorate. “Most of the people wouldn't be driving to the cafe, they'd be walking or cycling. I am extremely disappointed by this decision,” she said. “It takes three minutes to walk from the staff car park and the council says this is too far. People working in Pontypool town centre have a seven-minute walk to work, it doesn't make sense."