Councillors will get the final say on whether a new drive-thru development in Droitwich Spa goes ahead.
Planning permission was granted on Thursday, 27 February to create the drive-thru, another retail unit and 20 EV charging points on the Covercroft Car Park near Morrisons in Droitwich Spa.
But the development cannot take place until an agreement has been reached with Wychavon to give up their right to part of the land the development will be built on.
Although Wychavon doesn’t own the car park, the council has operated it since December 1993 and the lease has another 90 years left to run. There is no option within the agreement for the landlord to take possession of the site unless Wychavon voluntarily agrees.
A deal would have to be reached to compensate Wychavon for giving up part of the car park and to address concerns about physically separating out the proposed drive-thru section from the remaining public car park.
Any agreement would need to be approved by full council at a future meeting.
Cllr Richard Morris, Wychavon’s Executive Board Member for Economic Development and Tourism, said: “Apart from a brief meeting before the planning application was submitted the landlord or agent hasn’t engaged with us about the proposed development which is disappointing.
“Whilst the Planning Committee may have approved the application as they saw no valid planning reason to refuse - land ownership and lease agreements are not planning considerations - there are no permissions in place between the shopping precinct owners and us for the car park to be used in this way.
“We are clear there is a watertight agreement in place which means this development cannot take place unless councillors agree to give up our legal right to the land in question.
“Wychavon has always been pro-business, so we will have conversations about the development. But there are no guarantees we will agree a deal and we won’t do anything we believe will harm the wider economic interests of Droitwich Spa Town Centre. We have a Town Prospectus in place setting out our vision for the centre and the Place board, who are doing such great work. We look forward to being contacted by the landlord and agent to start this important discussion.”
