Pizza Hut’s plans to turn a Great Suffolk Street printing shop into a new outlet could get scuppered by Southwark Council’s rules against takeaways near schools.
Nine Food Group Ltd want to build the new store on Dolben Street, Borough, which is on the corner with Great Suffolk Street.
But Southwark Council’s planning policy says new hot food takeaways can’t be within 400 metres of a primary or secondary school’s boundary.
In contrast, the Greater London Authority’s London Plan says new takeaways can’t be within a 400 metre walking distance from “the entrances and exits” of a school.
Nine Food Group has stated that there is no pupil entrance or exit point from the school along the boundary and the shortest walking distance between that point and the application site is 493 metres.
The applicant has said: “In all cases, no school boundary is within 400 metres of the application premises, but the western-most boundary of the campus of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy which adjoins Great Suffolk Street to the south (i.e. ‘the Grotto’) is right on the border of the 400-metre distance from the application premises.”
To ensure its application is approved, Nin Food Group is arguing that walking distance should be the measurement used, and not as the crow flies. It has pointed to previous cases in which walking distance was measured as evidence.
This is an important test case and the ruling is likely to shape future hot food applications in the borough.
Nine Food Group says that the Pizza Hut would be open until midnight on Friday and Saturday and until 11pm on other days, employing eight full-time and twelve part-time staff.