A DRIVE-THRU car wash on the outskirts of Haddington initially turned down by East Lothian Council has now been given the go-ahead.

Gleam Machine Haddington was refused planning permission for a facility on the A199, to the rear of Haddington Retail Park.

The decision was appealed to the council's local review body – made up of councillors Liz Allan, Jeremy Findlay and Andrew Forrest – which voted, by majority, for the scheme to be given the go-ahead, subject to conditions.

Tony Thomas, representing the Dunbar-based business, was delighted with the decision.

He said: “We are absolutely thrilled.

“Common sense has prevailed.

“[It will be] a great service for local people to enjoy and it prevents them from having to travel further afield and damaging the environment.

“It is a good use of an ugly, scrappy brownfield site.

“Gleam Machine very much looks forward to getting on site and keeping Haddington’s cars clean as soon as possible.”

READ MORE: Haddington: Planned car wash at 'important gateway' refused

The virtual meeting was held this afternoon (Thursday), where councillors heard about the plans.

The developers have pledged that more than a dozen jobs will be created through the near £200,000 investment.

Council officials had turned down the scheme in April, deeming it a business not suitable for a countryside location; that the development would not complement the “important gateway” location into the town; and claiming that it would have a negative impact on road safety.

Mr Findlay ruled out the first two concerns and said: “I don’t believe this is actually a countryside location.

“As for not being suitable for a gateway into Haddington, I think that has already been ruined anyway.

“I’m not sure this would have any significant impact.”

However, each of the three councillors did highlight the concerns about road safety.

Mr Forrest, who voted to refuse the application, questioned whether motorists would only access the site from the east.

READ MORE: Haddington: Gleam Machine plans appeal takes place next week

He said: “Looking at it, I don’t think the site is wrong for what they want to do but the problem I have is the entrance and exit of it that are there.

“If this was to have been entered from the development side with the shops and everything, I think it would have been great.

“But, coming in from where it is, I think the difficulties I have got are that to get into it I cannot see anybody going down to the roundabout at the far end of the road to turn and come back in.

“I think they will be in doing some shopping, see the car wash sign, think ‘this is great’ and nip up to the roundabout and then turn to go in.

“I think that is the difficulty that I have got with it there.”

Ms Allan also had concerns about road safety but thought that the design of the facility could be used to try to fix those problems.

She added: “I think that it would be a destination that people would actually decide: ‘I’m going to go and wash my car' – the same way they decide to do when they go down to Dunbar.

“It would take some of the traffic away by keeping it a bit more local.”

Finally, Mr Findlay, who chaired the meeting, also voted in favour of the proposals.

He asked for a condition for signs to be put in place telling people to switch off their engines while they were waiting.

He added: “I think there are plenty of other cases where this type of turning in seems to work perfectly well.

“The obvious one is the Jet station on the Haddington Bypass, which is exactly the same.

“Most people turn in from the right, even though they could go down to the roundabout but don’t, and that seems to work alright.”