Planning application, use not on plans

[Workinghardeveryday]

Hi, please does anyone know if you opened a shop selling Home decoration for instance, can you then open a cafe within the shop and have seating outside if none of this was on the original planning application?
Friend thinking of doing this and I am not sure she can without persimmon first!
Thanks

I think a cafe is a different use category and she would need to register with council for Food Hygiene.

Thank you, I thought as much, I will let her know

The use classes order changed last year to give a lot more flexibility for changes of use for planning but it is definitely still with checking with the council as there may be hours of use limits / building regs/ ventilation etc which need to be dealt with.

Any cafe with persimmon is fine by me!

You’d need a pavement licence which you’d get from Highways dept of the council.

You won’t need extra planning for the cafe use providing it is ancillary to the shop (ie. smaller), however you would need pp for any external alterations like extractors/flues.

I don’t know much about food standards but presume the council enviro health team can help with that

As well as checking with planning about change of use and food safety she'll need to check the terms of her lease, it may prohibit certain uses and she might not have rights to use outside area especially if it's pavement

Thank you all, she owns the building and the area outside is on her property, there are houses very close by and she thought they may complain with the outside seating etc?

She won't be able to do anything food-related without registering with the council and passing the environmental health checks etc, probably just as important as the change of use (probably easier too as the food side of things is largely common sense and good record-keeping).

Even if she owns the land she needs to check it's not adopted highway. And check restrictive covenants on her title just in case

She mentioned to one of the neighbours she was going to open a cafe within the shop with outside seating and they didn’t look happy, said it was not on the planning

The use classes changed from 1 September last year and most shops and cafes/restaurants are now in the same use class. If your friend is concerned about planning or licensing issues, she should speak to the council.

I'm pretty sure she'll need to talk to the council about change of use. Even with the changes in the law, some areas have local rules on what can be opened based on what's around them.

She will need a pavement licence to put tables and chairs outside and she must be clear on who owns that part of the pavement.

Sounds like she'll have a battle on her hands in a residential area tbh.

I will let her know, thanks all 😊