Plans to demolish disused Hanley shops halted over lack of survey

Plans to demolish empty city centre shops and build a car charging station have been blocked – due to concerns over bats.

Osprey Charging Network wants to bulldoze The Quadrant building in Town Road, Hanley and construct an ‘ultra-rapid’ charging facility for up to 16 electric vehicles.

But Stoke-on-Trent City Council has refused to grant the scheme planning permission, due to the applicant’s failure to carry out a bat survey at the vacant building, as requested by the authority.

According to the decision notice, the planning application is ‘not of a sufficient standard to enable the case officer…to fully assess the impacts of what is proposed’.

The facility would include 16 DC charging points, which the applicant says would be capable of charging vehicles in just 20 minutes.

Planning officers say that the existing building has the ‘potential’ to house bats, a European protected species, which is a material planning consideration.

The council had asked Osprey Charging Network to submit a preliminary roost assessment as part of the application, but none has yet been supplied.