Wetherspoons Crosby plan sent back over size

Mar 18 2010 by Mark Johnson, Crosby Herald

A NATIONAL pub chain will go back to the drawing board because its plans to convert a former furniture store on South Road were deemed to be too big.

Wetherspoons this week confirmed to the Herald that it is still keen to open a pub at the location after rumours began to circulate that they had withdrawn their application.

Residents and landlords checked Sefton council website to read that the company had withdrawn its application.

But Wetherspoons told the Herald that it will submit a fresh application with a smaller customer area design.

Eddie Gershon, the spokesman for Wetherspoons, said: “We are still very much interested in the site. We did withdraw the application because the plan that went to the council was too big.

“We thought we would withdraw it now to save time. The new plan will have a smaller customer area.

“There’s no point putting in an application when the council is not happy with the plans. The council told us that they would not get passed because the customer area was too big. We are now working on new plans to give a better customer area which has a better chance of being passed.”

Asked when it would be submitted, he replied: “We don’t know when it will go ahead. It would be wrong for me to say when the date is.”

He added: “I’m not surprised by the opposition because they have every right to do that. We are being transparent and we want to go ahead with the plan.”

The Herald learnt that the customer area to be submitted on the new plan will be 3,000 square feet.

But despite an imminent revised plan, local residents believe a Wetherspoons would lead to an increase in noise, crime and disorder – claims which the firm have rejected.

And landlords fear they will see their profits fall if the pub ever opened up.

Ian Hamilton Fazey, chairman of the Waterloo Residents’ Association, said: “They knew the plan was going to fail and our opposition still stands now and the views of 650 people still stand.” He added: “We will be raising a second petition. We won’t run out of steam on this. We expect there to be changes with the licensing act whoever wins the General Election and we hope we will be given a much greater say with the number of licences in one small area.”