Italian riverside restaurant set for Castleford town centre

Capri Group have been given planning permission to transform “scruffy” workshop units into a fine dining business.

Wakefield Council has approved plans to build extensions to former commercial units on Savile Road to allow more room for the venture.

Capri currently operates 11 restaurants and cafés across West Yorkshire.

A planning statement submitted on behalf of Capri owner, Payman Karimi, said the proposal would “tidy up what is currently a rather scruffy site.”

The statement adds: “The current site is very run down and doesn’t add anything to the local area.

“The overall design approach is to create an attractive, contemporary development and make a positive contribution to the site setting and create a sense of place.”

Access to the new restaurant would be off a courtyard area between Savile Road and the river Aire.

The site lies along the southern bank of the rive, behind a footpath which forms part of a “strategic leisure corridor”.

Four full-time and three part-times jobs are expected to be created.

The plan includes the use of the public car park on Church Street, around 80m from the site, for customer and staff parking.

A project to regenerate Castleford is currently underway after the council secured £23m of government Town Deal funding in 2019.

Much of the funding is being spent on a revamp of buildings and open spaces next to the river and in the town centre.

The application received two comments of support and no objections

One resident in favour of the plan said: “The more such developments in and around the town centre and riverside, the better.

“Getting Castleford people to spend their leisure time and money in the town rather than at Xscape or further afield can only be a good thing, helping to drag the town out of the rut it has been in for the past couple of decades.”

The Capri portfolio includes businesses in Wakefield, Leeds, Horbury and Mirfield, including Capri at the Vine, Capri at the Containers and Capri Home Dining.

A planning officer’s report, which recommended the scheme for approval, said: “It is considered that the proposed development would contribute to the wider regeneration of the Castleford area and would provide new facilities for tourists and visitors within a central location in the town centre.”