Two planning applications have given clarity to plans for a retail unit in a new housing estate.

Fancy a Coffee Limited, which operates the island’s Costa Coffee chains, has made two proposals (20/01294/B) and (20/01302/B) for planners for the spare unit at the Crosby Meadow Estate, Peel Road, Crosby.

The first application is for permission for a change of use for the retail unit which will, if approved, join the Co-op in the estate. Currently the unit is designated for retail. This application would permit Costa to sell drinks and hot food.

In the second application, Fancy a Coffee Limited is seeking permission to add a first floor to the unit which would allow it to have an additional 43 seats in the store, bringing it to a potential seating capacity of 73.

Architect Ellis Brown, acting as the applicant’s agent, said only allowing sitting downstairs would make the unit ’unsuitable’ as it would only be able to seat 30.

If approved, the store would be open seven days a week from 7am to 10pm and would provide employment for about eight people on a full or part time basis.

In the application, Ellis Brown said: ’This is a community coffee shop serving the Crosby and Glen Vine area which does not have a facility of this nature. The nearest coffee shop is at Noble’s Hospital which is 5km away.

’There are very few facilities within a reasonable distance from the Heritage Trail and the developer of the site has constructed a concrete footpath linking this to Peel Road and the retail unit, therefore much of the trade will come from people walking to the coffee shop.’

The Crosby Meadow Estate was completed in October 2019, with families moving in at the start of 2020. It contains 28 homes and the double retail unit.