Bid to store booze in Blackpool back garden thrown out

Salvatore Fodera had wanted to store booze in his back garden by building a rear extension to his house on Fleetwood Road in Norbreck to use as a warehouse for his business, but his planning application was thrown out.

And a council licensing panel also turned down his bid for an alcohol licence for the premises.

Members of the panel said there was insufficient evidence to show the place where the alcohol would be stored was secure enough.

Solicitor Geoff Ormrod, who represented Mr Fodera at the licensing hearing, had said the storage area would be secure because it was completely surrounded by other properties and their gardens, with no back alley.

He said customers would not visit the site, but would have their online orders delivered to them by Mr Fodera in his van.

Mr Ormrod said: “The proposal is it will essentially be an online Italian deli and the use of the property is not going to be massively altered simply by virtue of the deliveries.

“People aren’t going to be turning up and shopping there. It’s going to be Mr Fodera in his van making deliveries on a daily basis.”

He said Mr Fodera already ran his online Italian deli but wanted to add alcohol to the offer.

Mr Ormrod added: “I can’t see what difference him selling alcohol from this property would make to the area or the amenity of residents.”

But objections were made by both Norbreck ward councillors Maxine Callow and Julie Sloman who said they were representing residents who were opposed to the scheme.

They said the proposed rear building would not be secure enough to store alcohol , with Coun Callow warning: “The other houses in the area are not storing quantities of alcohol, they are just residential homes where people keep lawn mowers or odds and ends.

“If it was known in the area this storage was taking place, it could become a temptation for some.”

Council planners, who refused the planning application using delegated powers, ruled the development would “result in piecemeal commercial development outside of the designated commercial areas and have a detrimental impact on the residential character of the area and surrounding properties.”

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