Scarborough Sainsbury’s change of hours for petrol station met with concerns
A large supermarket’s plan to extend the evening use of its petrol station has been met with concerns from residents.
The Sainsbury’s at Falsgrave Road, Scarborough, has applied for retrospective permission to change the opening hours of its petrol filling station and car wash services.
If approved, the petrol station could open at 8am on Sunday and a council report states that it could stay open until 10.30pm on certain days.
Current opening hours for the petrol station are restricted by condition from 9.30am to 8.30pm on Sundays, while Sainsbury’s said it was currently operating from 8am to 7pm.
On weekdays, the petrol station’s opening is restricted to 7.30am onwards but the supermarket chain said it was currently open from 7am.
“It should be noted that this is a retrospective application and that the ‘proposed’ car wash operating hours are currently being undertaken and there have been no noise complaints,” the company stated.
Concerns have been raised by local residents about the retrospective nature of the plan and whether adequate assessments have been conducted.
Scarborough resident Nick Maloney said he was not convinced by a noise assessment report submitted on behalf of Sainsbury’s.
“The report does not appear to clearly assess the late-evening period that is of concern to residents. Table 1 appears to describe the ‘new’ petrol filling station hours as early morning hours, rather than the proposed late opening until 10:30pm,” he said.
Mr Maloney said: “The report relies on a relatively short monitoring period. I am concerned that this may not properly reflect the impact on residents during quieter evening periods, when individual events such as engines starting, car doors closing, customer voices, idling vehicles and vehicles entering or leaving the site may be more noticeable.”
A noise assessment was carried out from May 9-11 at the petrol station, according to the submitted report.
However, as the car wash at the Scarborough site was awaiting repairs during the scheduled noise survey, noise levels for that facility were instead measured at an ‘identical’ car wash at the Peterborough store”.
A “drift of 0.0 dB was observed” at that store, according to a submitted report.
Resident Mr Maloney said: “I remain concerned that the report does not fully address the effect on residential amenity, particularly during the evening.
"The original restrictions were put in place to protect local residents, and I ask that this purpose is given proper weight.”
The applicant’s noise assessment report states that “worst-case petrol filling station noise is expected to be below pre-opening background levels during the Monday to Friday 7am to 7.30am additional hours and no more than 2.8 dB above background during the Sunday 8am to 9.30am additional hours.
“It is therefore considered that the noise from the proposed hours will be acceptable and compliant with all policy requirements.”
North Yorkshire Council has not set a date for deciding on the application which is currently open to representations.