Plans to extend a garden centre in Radcliffe have been given outline permission by planners.
The proposal relating to the well-established Newbank Garden Centre at Irwell Bank Farm in Bury Road sought planning consent for a single storey retail and caf? extension.
The area currently occupied by an outdoor sale area and garden and caf? seating area will be demolished and replaced with a new caf? and much needed toilet and baby changing facilities.
A new outside seating area will connect the new caf? directly to the garden centre enabling customer?s complete undercover access.
A new till hall at ground floor level will also be built to deal with ever increasing footfall.
The existing car parking and access arrangements will be unaffected and the caf? will only be open during the hours of operation of the garden centre which is during the daytime from 9:30am to 5:30am.
Chorlton Planning Ltd, the planning consultants dealing with the proposal, stated that for the application to be accepted, a number or objectives needed to be met beforehand.
One was to maintain and protect firms and jobs in the Borough and another was to meet the needs of small and growing businesses.
Maximising the economic benefits of the Borough?s attractive environment and minimising conflicts with the surrounding environment whilst ensuring satisfactory standards of design were also clearly stated objectives.
Newbank Garden Centre commercial director John Bottomley said: ?Outline permission has been accepted and I am in no doubt that we will encounter problems.
?We like to think that we do a good job in serving our community but the situation is becoming desperate and we have kind of outgrown the facility. ?It will be a modernisation of what we have and is not a major job but is a necessary improvement as we just cannot deal with the footfall at busy times, especially at Christmas.
?The caf? will be brand new and will overlook a new garden area and there will be new toilets and baby changing facilities and more tills so that we can deal with larger numbers,? he added.
