Former social club near HMP Preston to become cafe and car wash

The former Jubilee Club in Ribbleton Lane and St Mary’s Street North Pic: Google

A disused social club in Preston is to be turned into a café and car wash after getting the green light from planning officials.

Part of the former Jubilee Club building – on St. Mary’s Street North, directly opposite Preston Prison – will be converted into the new eatery, while a hand car wash and valeting facility will spring up on the site’s existing car park.

The hot food café will operate for 15 hours a day, seven days a week, opening its doors from 8am until 11pm. The car wash will open at the same time, but shut at 6pm.

A statement accompanying the application for permission for the plans described the location – which backs onto Ribbleton Lane – as “ideal for this type of operation”, adding that it will create 12 full-time equivalent jobs.

As part of the proposal – by applicant Majed Khalid – a conservatory will be added to the northern side of the building, while the area that will become the café will be centred around the restaurant of the former social club, following the reinstatement of the kitchen, lounge and seating spaces.

Once the internal works are complete, the new café will occupy little more than a tenth of the floorspace of the defunct facility it is replacing – excluding the new conservatory – meaning that the rest of the building will be left with its existing permission in place for social club use. However, the planning documents offer no hint as to when or whether that element will be resurrected, having been closed for “several years”.

Eight parking spaces will be available for the food outlet during the day, but this will increase to 17 when the car wash is closed of an evening.

The car park will be lowered from its current level to accommodate the car wash, with grey steel palisade fences erected around the perimeter to secure the site.

The design and access statement for the application states that car journeys could be minimised by the proposal by “allowing people to access shopping, leisure facilities and have their car cleaned within the same journey”.

No objections to the blueprint were received either from members of the public or Lancashire County Council highways officials. The applicant claims that the layout of the car wash will ensure that vehicles can queue up and be washed, dried and valeted “without interfering with traffic flows along St Mary’s Street”.

In approving the application with conditions, Preston City Council planning officer Vanessa Cartwright-Bremner noted that the partial conversion left open the option for the remainder of the building to be brought back into community use. Local planning policies seek to protect community buildings and ensure that there are enough of them.

She concluded that the plans would not have an unacceptable impact upon the appearance of the site, neighbouring amenity, highway safety or flood risk.