Demolition begins of former Chapel-en-le-Frith pub - which will become a petrol station

Last year High Peak Borough Councillors on the Development and Control Committee refused an application to knock down The Fickle Mermaid pub on Foresters Way.

Applicant EG Group Ltd, which owns 340 petrol filling stations in England and 2,500 sites across Europe, appealed the decision.

In January the appeal was passed and the pub, which had seen an increase in trade in recent months, was shut in February.

Now work has started on tearing down the building which was only built around a decade ago, to make way for the new 24-hour, eight-pump filling station and takeaway coffee store.

Although there is a petrol station just 650m away at Morrison Chapel-en-le-Frith speaking in a statement sent to the council to support the application EG Group Limited said: “The site is strategically located on the junction of the A6 and A624. As such, the development will make use of the high rate of vehicles using the road infrastructure by attracting passing motorists as opposed to drawing shoppers away from the existing centre.”

Access to the site will be achieved via Foresters Way/ Aldi Way to the immediate south and east of the site.

The application has been controversial not just because it was refused by councillors but because it received many letters of objection by residents and members of the public who described the pub as an ‘asset to the community’ and others saying ‘I do not think it will benefit the local community in anyway at all and have a negative effect on local businesses’.

EG Group will operate the petrol filling station and drive thru. This includes all management, employment, staff training and delivery of service for all uses on the site.

And the statement added: “The proposal will result in significant economic benefits in the form of the creation of 45 jobs.”

A total of 25 car parking spaces are also proposed throughout the development for both the petrol station shop and the cafe.

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