Micro-Brewery at Derby approved

•  The former Crank It Café building will have a new lease of life a tourist operation approved.

By Daisy Baker
January 26, 2022

A new tourist operation including a café, micro-brewery, micro-distillery and cellar door, has been approved by the Dorset Council at 55 Main Street Derby. 

The proposal will be housed in the existing building, which was previously used as the ‘Tin Mine Centre’ and more recently Crank It Café.

Developer Tim Kemsley has owned the building since 2017.

Minor cosmetic changes are proposed to the building’s facade, including the installation of more windows, but no further development is proposed.

Vehicle access for the proposal would be provided to the site by existing crossovers onto Christopher Street through the Council-owned public car park areas within 57 Main Street Derby. 

Council received one representation against the proposal from Bridport resident Lawrence Archer.

Mr Archer said that Council should not provide for relaxation of car parking number standards due to existing traffic congestion in Derby and a lack of on-street parking along Main Street.

Dorset Council town planner Thomas Wagenknecht said the proposal complied with the relevant criteria. 

The proposal relies on commercial vehicles using the carpark to unload and load goods and the Council car park has previously been used in this way.

With pedestrian access to the site and availability of public carparking spaces within reasonable walking distance, the number of on-street carparks is ‘unlikely to be unreasonably affected’.

Moreover, Mr Archer said ‘if the development were to proceed, sufficient funding should be provided in lieu of onsite parking so that the burden of providing alternative public parking does not fall on the ratepayers of Dorset’.

Dorset Council town planner Thomas Wagenknecht said that while a ‘cash-in-lieu of carparking’ approach can have merit in particular contexts, it cannot legitimately be taken under the current Car Parking Numbers use standard.

“Moreover, it is not appropriate to introduce such an approach in a piece meal ‘application by application’ manner without Council first endorsing transparent and definite parameters of scope and costs in the form of a Council ‘cash in lieu of car parking contribution’ Policy and the preparation, adoption, and implementation of a legitimate regulatory mechanism such a Parking Precinct Plan or Specific Area Plan,” he said.

“Such an undertaking would be a matter of Council strategic policy and is beyond the scope of the planning application currently being considered.”

With regard to parking availability in Derby, Mayor Greg Howard said when the depot gets resolved, 70-odd spaces will become available there, easing pressure on the Main Street.