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A premises in Graig y Rhacca can continue to operate as a hot food takeaway despite Caerphilly Council having only a patchy understanding of its history.

Richard Davies, of Chunky’s Chips, has successfully applied for a lawful development certificate which will allow him to use the property at 79 Grays Gardens as a takeaway.

Council planners had to decide whether the premises had operated continuously in that capacity, or if any periods of disuse could mean the site was considered abandoned.

According to planning documents submitted to the council, Mr Davies said the premises “in the heart of Graig y Rhacca” has been “used as a chip shop for 20-plus years”.

Mr Davies told the council he intends to use the ground-floor shop area of the premises as a takeaway in future.

Through various paperwork, the council’s planning officers determined the premises’ history as a chip shop dated back to the late 1960s, and in more recent years has been branded as Munchies Takeaway, The Rock and Chips Company, and Iso Kebabs.

To determine the lawful development certificate, council officers visited the premises, where they reportedly found a sign for “Munchies”, while “the shutters were closed and the unit appeared to be vacant”.

But after poring through records for the various businesses operating out of the premises in recent years, planning officers decided that “based on the evidence available and on the balance of probability, it is considered that the unit has continued to operate lawfully as a hot food takeaway” since 1969.

They added: “While the unit has been vacant intermittently over the past ten years, the council’s estates officer indicates that the unit has been continuously leased during this period.

“On this basis, it is not considered that the known periods of vacancy would be sufficient to constitute the abandonment of the building or its use.”