COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Plans for the outlet have been lodged with Coventry council



An old Boots in Coventry could be turned into a takeaway. Plans for the store at 163 Daventry Road were lodged with the council this week on June 4.

The branch is listed as shut permanently on Google and planning documents say the unit is empty. If approved, it means the site can be used as a hot food takeaway.

New signs would also be installed. Drawings show these have the logo for Sam's Chicken, a fried chicken restaurant which has 50 branches across the UK.

The takeaway's planned opening hours would be 10am to 2am on week days and Saturdays, and from 10am to 1am on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Plans can be viewed on the council's planning portal under the reference: PL/2024/0001035/FUL.

Last October, a Boots branch on Jardine Crescent in Tile Hill was closed by the pharmacy despite a campaign to save it. It came after the store announced that 300 of its stores would be closing in July last year, with branches in close proximity to other sites affected.

The parade of shops at Daventry Road has a Boots opticians at number 179 that is still open.

Plans for the old Boots on Daventry Road have been turned down



An area of Coventry has so many takeaways that the council says another one cannot open. Plans to turn an old Boots on Daventry Road into a hot food takeaway open until 1am were refused by the authority on Wednesday, 31 July.

Drawings with plans indicated the former store was set to become a franchise of fried chicken restaurant Sam's Chicken. But the council rejected the bid as it would go against policy due to the "high concentration" of takeaways locally.

This would be more than the national average and affect locals' health and wellbeing, the decision notice added. Under policy, the council will not approve new takeaways in areas where they are "over concentrated."

This is defined as areas where there are more takeaways per 1,000 people than the average for England. The area by Daventry Road in Cheylesmore already has double the national average of takeaways, 2.33 compared to 1.05.

A new outlet would lead to a "harmful" over-concentration of takeaways locally, wrote a council officer in their assessment of the bid. But this was not the only reason the council did not grant the scheme permission.

Plans also lacked enough information to show the outlet would avoid "unacceptable" disturbance to neighbours. especially those upstairs, the officer wrote. The bid failed to show flue/extraction systems would do enough to reduce the takeaway's noise and smell, the council's decision notice added.

Four residents objected to the plans, raising concerns over a rise in noise and litter, anti-social behaviour, parking pressure and harm to locals' health. A separate bid for new signage at the unit was given the go-ahead.

Coventry man who opened much-needed pharmacy says 'amazing'



A Coventry man said bringing a much-needed dispensary to the city has been 'amazing.' Nikhil Koria recently opened Cheylesmore Pharmacy on Daventry Road.

Nikhil, 26, decided to open Cheylesmore Pharmacy after a nearby Boots closed in 2023. It is managed by Tharndeep Sembhi, who has previously worked at Phoenix Family Care GP.

Services offered at Cheylesmore Pharmacy include prescription dispensing, travel vaccinations, and weight loss jabs.

Nikhil oversees the ordering of medication and says he is 'confident' in his ability to meet demand. Pharmacist Tharndeep is also on hand to help with minor medical conditions and injuries.

Nikhil, from Cheylesmore, said: “Myself and my grandparents, like a lot of residents, have been forced to use pharmacies outside of our community, which just is not right. Fortunately, with the support of local residents, we were able to demonstrate to the NHS the need for an additional pharmacy within our community.”

He added: “We will have prescriptions ready in a day, if not sooner, and pride ourselves on having the best stockholding. It has certainly been stressful but amazing that we are now in a position to provide our local community with the pharmacy experience it deserves.”

Nikhil said the new Cheylesmore-based facility has been positively received. He said: “We have been busy since opening, however have plenty more capacity for new patients."