Plans for vets’ practice on Wynyard Avenue in Wynyard approved

Northumberland Estates asked for planning permission to change the use of the industrial or storage unit on Wynyard Avenue, Wynyard. The unit sits on a newly constructed trade counter development at Wynyard Retail and Trade Park, where four units are empty and three are occupied by Screwfix, Howdens and builders’ merchant JD Dove.

The plan is to use a 347sqm empty unit, near new food store and drive-thru units, following “a firm offer from a local veterinary practice”. It put forward no external changes.

Wynyard Vets are proposed to take up the unit, with a planning statement from consultants Lichfields saying: “There is currently no existing veterinary practice within Wynyard, and presently pet owners are required to travel out of the area for veterinary care.

“Wynyard Vets is a small independent animal veterinary practice which has been established in order to better meet the needs of Wynyard’s growing residential community and provide high-quality care and first opinion services for companion animals… Wynyard Vets’ practice would offer a range of services including preventative healthcare (such as vaccinations, parasite control and health checks), diagnostic and surgical procedures, dentistry, and emergency care.”

It says the practice will offer specialist treatments including orthopaedic surgery, laparoscopic spays, keyhole surgery and airway surgery, and equipment including digital radiography, laparoscopy, an X-ray suite, dental facilities, separate dog and cat wards, pharmacy and operating theatres, offering a “premium and specialised service serving a wide range of animal needs”.

It says the surgery will employ 10 staff at first, from administrative to professional veterinary roles. This will rise to 20 staff within three years.

No objections to the plans were received by Stockton Council. Planning officers said in their report: “There are no other alternative units which are able to accommodate the requirements for the proposed veterinary practice and given that the unit remains available despite extensive marketing, the proposed use as a veterinary practice would be deemed acceptable in this instance.

“The volume of comings and goings of members of the public are unlikely to be broadly different from those occupying the neighbouring units.” They said this would be “largely on an appointment basis and due to the scale of the unit, it is not envisaged that it would result in a detrimental impact to the general character of the area”.

Officers approved the plan with conditions. A separate proposal from the same developer to turn two other units into a OneGym 24-hour fitness centre, as part of the fitness operator’s expansion across the North-east, is still awaiting a decision from the council.

Lichfields said in their planning statement for both plans: “Despite successfully securing occupiers for three of the trade counter units, Northumberland Estates have struggled to attract interest in the remaining trade counter units and there has been no firm interest in the remaining units from trade counter occupiers.”

But they said expressions of interest from other occupiers had led to firm offers for the gym and vets’ proposals: “Given the investment committed at the site, there is a need to find occupiers for the remaining units, and this is particularly important as the trade counter development, and wider new development of the Wynyard Retail and Trade Park, is now completed.”