PLANS to turn an Appleton cafe 'struggling to be financially viable' into a pizzeria have been withdrawn.

The application was recommended for approval after being listed on the agenda for the development management committee's Town Hall meeting on August 30.

However, the application for the Bridge Lane site, which proposed a change of use from a cafe to a pizzeria, has been withdrawn.

Applicant Karen Howard opened Bizzie Beans coffee house at the site in January last year.

A statement in the development management committee agenda said 'the main issues to consider with the proposal are its impact on residential amenity and the impact on highway safety'.

It added: "Currently, the cafe is struggling to be financially viable and the applicant feels that the proposal would be a more viable proposition.

"It would also retain some employment and is likely to help secure the continued vitality and viability of the local centre.

"Overall, therefore, it is considered that the principle of the proposal would be acceptable.

"While two previous applications at this premises were refused in 1998 and 2013 for changes of use to a hot food takeaway (HFT), most recently a prior notification application has been granted subject to conditions for a cafe.

"Given that this has been implemented and is the lawful use the main consideration is whether the proposal would have significant impacts on its surroundings compared to the cafe use.

"A cafe use and a HFT use are broadly similar in terms of noise and disturbance associated with them.

"The main differences are that numbers of people visiting a HFT may be higher than a cafe because they do not tend to stay on the premises for a long period of time – HFTs tend to open later than a traditional cafe with potential for impacts on amenity and HFTs tend to require extraction systems to deal with odours created by cooking."

It was proposed that the groundfloor site, which is owned by the council, would have been open from 11am to 9pm seven days a week.