Popular ice cream parlour's alcohol plans for converted park toilets spark objections

Plans by a popular Saddleworth ice cream parlour to serve alcohol in converted park public toilets have prompted a furious response from residents.

Grandpa Greene’s Luxury Ice Cream Ltd has applied for a new premises licence for a ‘small’ restaurant on the edge of a park in Uppermill, which would accommodate 44 people.

Planning proposals to convert the former public toilets in the King George V Playing Fields on Wade Row into a café had prompted a mixed response, with 121 objections to 37 supporting comments.

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Despite the objections Oldham’s planning committee gave the application, which includes a single storey glazed extension, the green light in August last year.

Under the latest submission to the council’s licensing authority, Grandpa Greene’s would serve alcohol from 11am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday at the new venue.

However the company insists alcohol would only be served inside, and with food – such as Prosecco with afternoon tea which it says would be the ‘majority’ of its alcohol sales, and no alcohol would be taken off-site.

Five written objections have been lodged against the proposed licence, with Helen Bishop, parish councillor for Greenfield, arguing the plans are a ‘safeguarding issue’ with adults drinking alcohol ‘within a children’s play area’.

“The changes of these interests clashing are high, and alcohol consumption will only fuel any altercations or interactions that occur,” she writes.

“The area has also had a problem with drug use associated with the night-time culture, it is not appropriate for that to start to encroach upon the park.

“Young people have very few safe places to enjoy and these should be protected from