Car centre ready for extension battle
A car repair and sales centre in the Black Country is considering an appeal after being refused permission to extend onto an area of wasteland.
A car repair and sales centre in the Black Country is considering an appeal after being refused permission to extend onto an area of wasteland.
The business says potential new jobs will now be lost if the extension does not go ahead.
Bosses at Suzi-Q's, a specialist 4x4 centre in Oldbury, purchased a piece of land adjoining its site in Brades Road and had hoped to extend the sales forecourt in an attempt to tidy up the spot, which had become overgrown, plagued with rubbish and infested with vermin.
Planning officers at Sandwell Council threw out the planning application for the scheme, stating it would be detrimental to the area because it involved the removal of a landscaped area and semi-mature trees.
Suzi-Q's is now looking into the possibility of appealing against the decision on the grounds that the extension would create extra jobs in the area and clean up an area of land which is currently a blight on the environment.
The business's owner David Preston said that the work to extend the forecourt would have created around five jobs until the work was completed.
And the extra capacity for cars would have created two more permanent jobs at the firm.
"All we are trying to do is tidy it up and get rid of the rats by making it part of the garage forecourt," he said.
"We would have put new trees in to replace the ones being removed, and all we were trying to do was extend the forecourt and tidy the park up.
"It would have created two more jobs for a valeter and a salesman," Mr Preston said.
"There would be about one month's work for four or five guys, so it could have taken people off the dole," he added.
"The cars that would go on there would have to be cleaned.
"It would mean more cars to sell, which would generate more work.
"I proposed to remove three trees to give us access," Mr Preston said.
"But I would have left the remaining four trees and replaced them with five trees further back.
"I amended the application to include the replacement trees.
"But that has been thrown out, so we are looking at an appeal," he added.
