Blackburn with Darwen Council has granted planning permission for a vacant unit on Oak Street to be used as a private hire booking office. Customers will not be allowed in.
The Lancashire Telegraph reports that officers approved the change of use under delegated powers. Neighbours were consulted, a site notice was put up, and nobody objected. The public protection team did not object, subject to limits on how the office is used.
The permission allows use only between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. Conditions are there so it cannot run as an ordinary taxi office, with customers, drivers or vehicles waiting outside. The paper does not give the application number or the street number.
What the applicant told the council
The unit is vacant. Council documents list its earlier uses as a travel agency, a confectionery shop, a ladieswear store, a beauty business and, most recently, a dessert parlour. Officers said a taxi office of this sort would disturb the street less than many of those uses.
The applicant said the business would mainly arrange transport for schools and colleges, and that the office is an administrative base. One member of staff would use it to organise driver rotas and the paperwork for those contracts. The officer report says it would be occupied only once or twice a week, for a few hours at a time. There would be no walk-in bookings and no waiting area.
The planning papers say the premises are needed so the operator can apply for a private hire licence from Blackburn with Darwen. This approval does not grant that licence.