SPALDING businessman Sam Kandola is trying for a fifth time to develop the site of an old garage sales and workshop building at Cowbit.
Mr Kandola originally wanted to put a golf driving range on the eight-acre site in Moulton Chapel Road but that was rejected by South Holland District Council. Three applications for shops have also been turned down.
Now he’s trying again and has put in a planning application for a shop, cafe and lorry park.
Mr Kandola, who runs Premier General Stores in Little London and Pennygate, said: “The proposed lorry park is to provide an essential service to the hauliers, local, national and international, that service our local industries.
“There is no facility available for those businesses to park overnight in a safe location offering the drivers the services which we intend to provide.
“To date we have had considerable support for the project and have been assisted with this application by the local authority.”
If it gets get the go-ahead, the development will create seven full-time and nine part-time jobs.
The shop would open from 7pm-9pm daily and the cafe from 6am-10pm.
As well as parking for cars, the plans say the site could accommodate ten coaches and more than 200 lorries.
The workshop lies just off a roundabout on the A16 and falls in the parish of Weston.
Weston Parish Council has previously objected to his planning applications for shops, saying on one occasion that a shop would “create a roadside establishment causing an unacceptable increase in traffic movements close to a busy junction”.
But Mr Kandola has maintained the road layout is very similar to the A16 roundabout in Spalding where the council gave permission for a McDonald’s and a petrol filling station.
Car boot sales are regularly held on Mr Kandola’s land and he says they have never caused traffic problems.
He said: “Originally I wanted to put a shop there and live next door and sort of semi-retire with it.”