Restaurant wants helipad for 'regular customer'

An Italian restaurant in Lancashire wants to create a dedicated helipad for one of their regular customers who usually arrives by helicopter.

The Italian Orchard in Broughton, Preston, has applied for planning permission to install a pair of helipads on land in front of the eatery on Whittingham Lane.

The restaurant has told town hall planners that the use of the helipads will be "strictly occasional – perhaps once or twice a month" for the client who normally comes along with someone else in another helicopter.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service approached the Italian Orchard but the management team was unavailable.

A planning statement submitted to the city council says: "Currently the helicopters use the same area for landing, but it is an area currently of open grassland with a clayey subsoil which does sometimes get waterlogged.

"The proposed helipads will be constructed of self-draining macadam over a granular fill and will not require mains drainage of surface water.

"The area where it is proposed to construct the helipads is currently an area of open cut grassland – it is proposed that the bio-diversity of the area will be increased by shrub planting and use of a wildflower mix in an area of uncut grass."

The Italian Orchard, on Whittingham Lane, is part of the San Marco group of restaurants and has been established for 40 years.

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