A new Pizza Hut will not come to Borough after Southwark Council rejected the application, saying it would be too close to Friars Primary School.
The News previously reported that the application by Nine Food Group Ltd was a test of Southwark Council’s policy of not allowing hot food takeaways within 400 metres of school boundaries.
The council reached its decision on October 25, who said the application to convert the old printing shop at 30 Dolben Street also lacked detail on transport, noise and ventilation issues.
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has previously said: “Takeaway restaurants are a vibrant part of London life, but it’s important that they are not encouraging our children to make poor food choices.
“I am using all of my powers through my new London Plan to prevent new takeaways from being built just down the road from schools as part of a package of measures to tackle the ticking time bomb of childhood obesity and help us all lead healthier lives.”
However, under the Greater London Authority’s guidelines, which says new takeaways can’t be within 400 metres walking distance of “entrances and exits”, it looked like the application could go ahead.
But the proposal did not meet Southwark’s tougher specifications, which assert that school boundaries, rather than entrances and exits, mark the perimeter from which the distance should be measured.
There were also fears that the store would detract from the architecturally significant Tate Modern. One objector wrote: “The very idea that a Pizza Hut would be allowed in such a location – in clear site of the Tate Modern – is preposterous and goes against everything that has been done/achieved through the many great initiatives to make this area as appealing as possible.”
The applicant could now appeal the decision and it’s possible that a government planning inspector could overrule the decision.