Plans to replace Carterton car showroom with car wash and EV charging

Plans have been submitted to West Oxfordshire District Council to redevelop Dowleys Garage in Norton Way, Brize Norton, and expand the existing service area.

Proposals are for two automatic car washes, six covered jet wash bays, air/water and vac facilities, and bays which could be used for future electric vehicle charging.

Applicant Fraser Retail Ltd owns the next-door petrol filling station and said it wants to expand the services it can offer.

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The application states this “is a small site and suffers from a lack of parking and insufficient space to provide all of the typical ancillary facilities and emerging uses that road users and service station customers have reasonably come to expect”.

There is one other petrol filling station in the town, at the Asda supermarket, and “it is important, in the interests of choice, competition and supply, that the service station is supported in this development to secure long term viability”, it said.

The application is supported by a Transport Statement that shows that the development “will have no material impact on the local road network, the proposed access is safe for this scale of development and sufficient parking is proposed”.

The car showroom use is relocating and the site is considered to be no longer viable for this type of use.

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“Both new and used car sales has been affected by the online marketplace and companies are generally looking for much larger sites for storage and distribution of stock with less emphasis on showrooms and more on storage,” say planning documents.

The proposed development, physically, is smaller than the buildings it will replace “and with good design, in terms of external appearance and sustainable building practices, the proposed development would have a net benefit in terms of the impact on the character of the area”.

The applicant concludes: “The proposal represents sustainable development, economically, socially and environmentally, for which there is a presumption in favour.” 

Dowleys, a family-run garage that been in operation in Carterton since 1979, has moved to Carterton Industrial Estate.