Car hire firm given 300m street parking ban
A car rental firm has been barred from parking on the streets around its site amid concerns about its impact on a busy highway.
AMT Vehicle Rentals had applied for retrospective planning permission for change of use of their Loanhead base, a former builder merchants.
However the local community council objected, raising concerns about parking on the surrounding roads and safety. They claimed transporter vehicles visiting the business, based off Clerk Street, park on the road blocking driveways and junctions.
A meeting of Midlothian Planning Committee agreed to give the new business the go-ahead, but introduced a condition to ensure no vehicles connected to the business could be parked on public roads within 300 metres of the site.
The condition was welcomed by Councillor Peter Smaill, who acknowledged that officers had “gone the extra mile” to try and ensure the rental firm did not add to congestion on the busy streets.
AMT Auto’s operations director Dave Hinchcliffe had responded to Loanhead and District Community Council’s concerns saying any transporter visit occurred just once a month and pointing out the public do not visit the rental site.
The company said staff delivered and collected their fleet of vehicles to customers and that 40 parking spaces on site were enough for AMT and employee vehicles meaning none would be parked on the street.
It added: “AMT supply long and medium term rental vehicles to businesses, and the site has been leased to store the vehicles and deliver on to businesses. The average volume of deliveries per day will be 5-10, with opening hours 8am-6pm week days and 8am-12pm Saturday (closed Sunday).”
The committee granted the change of use with the condition “No vehicles associated with the use shall be parked on any street within 300 metres of the application site”.
The public can comment on or lodge objections to planning applications. You can view full documents relating to proposals online via the Public Notice Portal - publicnoticeportal.uk - or Midlothian Council’s planning portal.