A BID to keep roller shutters on a shop has been refused after a planning inspector said they gave a town centre a “fortress” appearance.
The shutters were fitted to the windows in early 2024 by tenants of the Pontypool town centre shop due to break-ins and anti-social behaviour, though they then left the premises following a burglary in May that year.
However landlord Peter Cox applied to Torfaen Borough Council for retrospective permission to keep the shutters, which he’d painted to be more in keeping with the shop front, as he considered them essential to protect the premises.
When the council refused the application, describing the shutters as having “a harmful impact on the character and appearance of the surrounding area”, Mr Cox appealed to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW).
It sent independent inspector Richard James to Osborne Road and view the shop, which is now a laundrette, but he sided with the council and upheld the decision to refuse the application for the same reasons.
Vandalism
Mr James said the appeal had “substantiated” the concerns around “anti-social behaviour, vandalism and theft in the area, particularly during the night” but said he wasn’t convinced the roller shutters were the only answer.
His report stated: “It is likely that some form of protection is essential for the appeal property to combat these concerns and secure the long-term viability of its commercial use. However, there is no compelling evidence to demonstrate that the development before me is the only means available to the appellant to do so.”
As a result he dismissed the appeal on the same grounds the council had refused permission due to the shutters, which project from the building with boxed storage, being “harmful to the character and appearance” of the area.
A lane running alongside the shop separates it, and the remainder of Osborne Road, from the Pontypool Conservation Area and Mr James said the number of units with shutters detracted from the shopfronts.
‘Street scene’
He stated: “I also saw a number of roller shutter doors of varied appearance within the area. Those which had boxy housing that projected out from their shop front fascias, comprised bulky, unsympathetic additions to the street scene.”
While Mr James noted vacant units in the northern end of the town centre he considered it to have “a generally high occupancy rate and a predominantly active frontage”.
He said shutters harmed the appearance: “Those that were closed during my visit with solid opaque shuttering that prevented views through to their respective shop fronts, created visual gaps in the active street frontage with a hard, fortress appearance, that eroded the street scene’s quality.”
It was also stated in Mr James’ report that while the shutters would be up during opening hours people would likely still travel through the commercial area in the mornings and early evenings when the shutters would be drawn down.