A CHURCH and car wash had been operating without planning permission from the same site for more than a year.
The car wash is based beside the Victory Church, in Cwmbran which said it was unaware its temporary planning permission had expired.
Torfaen Borough Council’s planning department has now approved use of the site at Greenforge Way as both a church and car wash, the retention of shipping containers on site as well as a new external staircase and windows on the converted factory.
The previous planning permission, which approved use of the former factory and warehouse, as a church along with various other uses including a Christian bookshop, coffee shop, a soft play centre, charity base and social welfare centre, was only granted on a temporary basis as the area was part of a wider site identified for residential and commercial development in the council’s existing local development plan.
Planning officer Mia McAndrew said in her report, which approved the church’s application, the permission had been granted in 2019 for five years: “This expired on the 10th May 2024 and the church and car wash have since been operating without consent. Storage containers have also been placed on site without planning permission.”
A planning statement, submitted on behalf of Reverend Clyde Thomas of the Victory Church, stated it had only recently become aware the permission was limited, it thought, to three years.
Ms McAndrew said there is no longer any need to limit the planning permission as the council has said the “ambition” for the area to be a “strategic site” is no longer being progressed.
As a result, the main considerations were whether the continued uses, alterations to the building and the shipping containers would have a highway safety and visual impact.
She said the containers “would not look out of place” given the industrial appearance of the modern church building, and said there had been no objections from highways while it is intended to improve the layout of the car park.
Ms McAndrew said in her report: “The church and car wash have been operating suitably without a harmful impact on highway safety. Visits to the storage containers could be accommodated by the significant parking provision because group events at the church are limited and visits to the car wash are typically short.”
Details included in the application stated the church employs six full-time staff and the car wash between four and six full-time workers, while Cwmbran High School, which uses rooms at the church for lessons for pupils who could be at risk of exclusion, can have some 20 staff on site.
The church is also used by the Torfaen Play Service, which owns four of the six containers, while it said it food bank and shop is used by 85 families and has cost £111,000 to run over three years, with funding from the Lottery, Torfaen council and the church.