New taxi office bid on Rhyl 'eyesore' site

Plans have been submitted for a new taxi office to replace a Rhyl "eyesore". Zenith Logistic Consultants Ltd has applied to Denbighshire County Council’s planning committee department, seeking permission to erect a two-storey taxi dispatch office building and workshop at 72-74 Ffordd Las in Rhyl.

The applicant also wants to install a CCTV system as well as a retrospective application for the demolition of the existing building and the erection of fencing. The applicant says the plans include provision for vehicular access.

The company has also submitted a letter to the council in support of the application. The letter reads: “The above property has been a bit of an eyesore on Ffordd Las for a number of years even back to when it was owned by another company.

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“The building has become dangerous, so I have had the area properly fenced (off) to keep the general public safe as I can’t get insurance on the building because of the state that it is in.” The letter added:“The buildings being proposed are an office for up to nine employees to work from.

“This would include my taxi dispatch operators (taxi office planning permission required), administration personnel, accounts staff, garage and vehicle maintenance staff, and myself.

“A boardroom for meetings at upstairs offices will be designed with GDPR in mind (with) lockable and restricted access. The ground floor would be open plan with a counter to divide the driver/public from the working area so no one outside the company would be able to see taxi booking screens.

“The larger building would be a commercial garage with four bays, two bays with pits, and one of the bays would have brake-testing equipment for the larger vehicles. There is the need for a garage to accommodate large vehicles as the only garage that offered this service was sold and the people taking over have stopped the service for large vehicles.”

The statement concluded: “I aim to make the buildings modern and aesthetically pleasing on the eye and also modern to achieve the company aim of offsetting our carbon footprint. I hope to attract skilled, well-paid jobs to the garage which will complement our other businesses employing a number of people in different roles.”

The planning application will likely be debated at a future planning committee meeting at Denbighshire’s Ruthin County Hall HQ.

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