A BUSINESS which ran a popular restaurant and supper club at Spark:York has decided to “walk away” from its proposal to move to a permanent home in Gillygate - despite receiving planning permission.

Cardamom and Dill, which opened as a pop-up cafe at School House Gallery in Peasholme Green in 2017 before moving to a unit at Spark in November 2018, planned to move into the empty property in Gillygate next door to Heima.

It applied for change of use of the ground floor from retail to mixed use, with a planning statement accompanying the application saying: “The application is for composite retail/restaurant/workshop uses.”

Its application was given the green light by City of York Council, but with a number of conditions.

A statement appeared on Cardamom and Dill’s Facebook page on Tuesday, which said it had “made the incredibly tough decision to walk away” due to the restrictions associated with the change of use.

According to the planning statement, the proposed opening hours were Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.

It added: “Provision is made within the application form for this to extend to 9.30pm to accommodate the supper club and taverna evenings. Whilst the current business model demonstrates clearly that the evening uses are not frequent, were the application successful the proposed opening hours need to allow for the evening uses as they currently occur and are successful.”

However, one of the conditions of approval was: “The internal use of the premises by customers shall be restricted to the hours of 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and not at all on Sundays.

“This internal use shall be allowed to operate on one day per calendar month (not Sundays) up to 10pm with all activities on this extended day also ceasing at 10pm. The playing of music on the premises, either amplified or otherwise, shall be restricted to 9am to 6pm.”

Cardamom and Dill’s Facebook statement on Tuesday said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that we are no longer planning to open our new space on Gillygate.

“As many of you know, we have recently endured a lengthy process to change the use of the building.

“However, challenges to our application have caused restrictions and conditions on the approval of the A3 licence.”

It goes on to say that concerns raised include “the noise, a late night licence, cooking odours and extraction, none of which are issues associated with our consciously low impact brand.”

The statement added: “As a result, the restrictions associated with the change of use granted to us late last week would have seriously limited our potential not only to grow our brand but our ability to deliver the level of service and flexibility we have established over the past year.

"For that reason we have made the incredibly tough decision to walk away.”

Cardamom and Dill said it will focus on pop-ups, trying to find a new home for the supper club and private dining.

Its website says “the restaurant at Spark:York is now permanently closed...".

Cardamom and Dill could not be contacted for comment yesterday.