Decision on plans for £5million restaurant and bar complex at Doncaster's Sandall Park due next week

Visitors could soon benefit from a new £5 million facility which would directly replace the ageing café building.

Planning officers at Doncaster Council are recommending the plans are approved with conditions but the final say will fall to elected councillors on the planning committee.

The scheme was first mooted in 2015 and the project also involves a reconfiguration of the car park.

The building will offer views over the park’s lake and developers hope it will attract thousands of extra visitors to the Wheatley park each year.

Proposals suggest the building will be able to provide 150 food covers, new public toilets, improved kitchen and food preparation facilities and better disabled access.

The space will also provide better use for clubs and societies in the community.

Council planners said the structure needed to address problems in the current café.

They said the building had ‘very poor energy efficiency’ from the 1950s construction and the existing roofing is ‘failing’ which led to serious water leaks in 2017 that led to the café being closed during a peak Summer period.

The new building will also need to address overcrowding at peak times as currently the café has ‘insufficient capacity’ to meet demand.

Council bosses approved the surrender and renewal of the lease on the Sandall Park Café in 2015 to facilitate its redevelopment, noting they ‘would not be able to fund redevelopment’ of the site.

The applicants have said expansion of the business could lead to job creation from 10 to 40 jobs.

DMBC planning officer Hannah Wilson, said: “The proposal is considered in the context in favour of sustainable development.

“The proposal will replace a building that is in disrepair and requires significant improvements...Officers have identified no adverse economic, environmental or social harm that would significantly or demonstrably outweigh the benefits identified when considered against the policies in the planning framework taken as a whole.”

Councillors will make a decision on the plans at a meeting at the Civic Office on Tuesday, January 7.

The meeting starts at 2pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend.