A car dealership will be allowed to push ahead with building an MOT testing facility after plans were backed amid concerns about the lack of parking spaces.

Worcester City Council’s planning committee approved a plan by car dealers Listers to convert a workshop into a space for MOT testing at its showroom off Bromyard Road in Worcester.

The new showroom would double the number of staff to 48 but the work would result in the loss of seven parking spaces.

Bedwardine councillor Alan Amos, who had requested the plan be discussed by the planning committee because residents had been ‘plagued for years’ by overspill parking, said he was “staggered” that nobody could foresee any problems.

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Despite his concerns, the work was still given the green light at the meeting in the Guildhall on Thursday (September 22) with highways officers at Worcestershire County Council saying they expected “no issues.”

“It’s an existing and growing problem,” Cllr Amos said at the meeting. “What bothers me about this [plan] is that the number of staff has doubled from 24 to 48 but the number of car parking spaces has reduced by seven.

“Daft is the politest word I can come up with.”

“Where are they going to park? My argument has always been that they should be parking on-site. I’m disappointed that we have heard nothing today about increasing the capacity for these 24 extra staff.”

Cllr Amos said staff and visitors from the handful of nearby car dealerships were causing problems in already congested streets such as Boughton Close, on the opposite side of Bromyard Road, and the issue was “getting worse” after spreading to Bransford Road, Willis Place, Smiths Avenue and Blakefield Road.

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A plan for a new showroom and valet building at the site, which was previously occupied by Isuzu and Renault, was approved alongside other work by the council’s planners in May.

The work also included changes to the car park and display areas but did not mention a proposed new MOT testing facility that would be built in an existing workshop.

However, Listers was told it needed to include the MOT testing facility specifically in its planning application to satisfy the DVSA and resubmitted the paperwork to the council.