Coffee shop plans for Midhurst thrown out

Costa Coffee is widely believed to be the High Street name behind the application for a change of use of ground-floor premises at the Unusual Food Company, in North Street.

Approval was recommended by Chichester District Council’s planning officers, who said the proposed coffee shop would provide a ‘significant’ retailing element, in the form of takeaway drinks and food.

But CDC’s northern area development control committee voted 7-4 in favour of a proposal by Midhurst representative Brian Weekes that consent should be refused on the grounds of a significant loss of retail use.

The committee agreed this reduction would harm the vitality and retailing character of the town centre.

The application does not name who wants to take the shop over, but it describes them as a ‘Costa-style operation’.

Cllr Weekes said he was disturbed by the number of places that a very large multi-national coffee shop might put out of business in the town.

“These are people who have struggled and survived in Midhurst,” he declared.

With the growth of tourism locally, a lot of people going to the town would be looking for local cafes where they could get home-baked cakes and tea and coffee, not a very large coffee shop. He was also concerned North Street would end up littered with paper cups.

“This council has spent a lot of money in Midhurst on getting shop fronts redecorated, and I am not prepared to see the town suffer,” said Cllr Weekes.

Cllr Elizabeth Hamilton said there were no empty retail premises in North Street at the moment. “To remove one when we are looking to keep a variety of different sorts of retailing there would be a retrograde step,” she warned.

Cllr Heather Caird disputed the claim there would be a significant element of retailing in the coffee shop.

“We shall be losing a significant amount of retailing space, which is a big concern for me,” she said.

Planning manager David Few said there would be no threat to Midhurst’s retail environment, but Cllr Weekes said: “We can’t afford to lose this retail space in North Street. There are other empty shops in Midhurst which could be used as a coffee shop.

“Why do they want to take such a large retail space in the centre of the town?”