A hot food takeaway company has applied for planning permission to turn an old bank in a town centre’s conservation area into a Papa John's store.

If approved, Papa John's will convert the old Natwest bank on Newbury Street in Wantage, into a new pizza store along with minor alterations.

The new unit is not part of a listed building, but is located within the Wantage Conservation Area.

There are a number of Grade II listed buildings within the immediate area including the Blue Boar Hotel, which lies opposite the application site.

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Internally, Papa Johns would provide a 19 square metre customer waiting area off Newbury Street with a counter and seating provision.

The remainder of the layout would comprise of a food preparation area including oven, assembly line preparation table and packaging area, a cold store, a dry store, toilets, wash-up area and office provision.

The shopfront to Newbury Street would be retained and replaced with a new powder coated aluminium shopfront and door.

Members of the public are not happy about the application, taking to social media Jan Stubbs wrote: “Oh for Gods sake. We need other types of stores. Shoe shops, clothing stores.

“We certainly do not need yet another takeaway.”

Lisa Stride-Purves, who also posted a comment online, said: “Is this an early April-fools joke? I hope so.

“We have Dominos, Sorro’s and Wildwood in town. We really do not need another pizza restaurant or takeaway.”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1

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