EG Group, founded by Blackburn brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa in Bury as Euro Garages, wanted to build a petrol station, two drive-thru restaurants, car jet wash and electric charging points on Sir Isaac Newton Way, not far from a junction serving the M62.
The proposal would have been within the vicinity of Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale and employed up to 70 people in the area.
But planning officers refused the plan because the drive-thrus, which had not been assigned to a particular brand, would fail to support healthy lifestyles.
Rochdale Council also believed the traffic impact of the new facility would create an unacceptable level of harm to neighbours.
In plans submitted to the authority, EG Group said it believed the site would not increase traffic in the area, but serve the current passing trade of motorists.
And an inspector for the Department for Transport stated in a report that this development “would go some way to meeting an otherwise unmet, or inadequately met, need for a petrol station and motorist facilities in the area”.
But in response to this, a council report highlights that the planning statement is inaccurate.
It reads: “The statement is based on an incorrect and incomplete assessment which argues the proposals would fill a strategic gap in motorist fuel, food and beverage and rest provision.
“The applicant states that the closest services westbound from junction 21 are at Birch services and that these are 24 miles away. For traffic westbound from junction 21, Birch services are in reality less than 6 miles away.
“The statement notes that the closest services eastbound are at Hartshead Moor and that these are also 24 miles away, however the eastbound side of the services at Hartshead Moor is in fact less than 19 miles away from junction 21.”
In October, Zuber stepped down as co-chief executive of EG Group, and he now leads EG on the Move – a UK petrol forecourt and convenience retail business.
