14 June, 2018

24/7 petrol pumps planned for Cheltenham

A 24-hour unmanned petrol station is proposed for Devonport.

Gull New Zealand has applied to Auckland Council for a consent for a six-pump station at the site of Tainui Motors, on Vauxhall Rd, Cheltenham.

It’s not known how long the resource consent application will take to process through council. But the proposal will be welcomed by motorists who, in recent years, have had to drive the length of the peninsula to BP at Hauraki to gas up.

All existing Tainui Motors buildings will be removed as part of the changeover.

Gull plans to:

• Build a forecourt with six gas dispensers and Gull canopies.

• Install two underground tanks to hold 70,000 litres of petrol and 30,000 litres of diesel.

• Build an oil-and-water separator and an IT services shed.

• Erect an 8-metre-high freestanding Gull sign.

• Landscape and fence the site.

The application was lodged by Gull late last month.

A service station and garage was set up on the site in 1975. The service station was decommissioned and the tanks removed in 2010.

The maximum number of vehicles using the pumps would be around 40 per hour, Gull estimated.

No parking is required at the site as there is no building proposed, Gull said.

Neighbours had lived next to a garage and service station for 40 years, so Gull says any disturbance would be less than that experienced now.

Fuel deliveries will be made during the day to cut down on noise to neighbours.

“The site is not anticipated to experience many customer visits during the night-time hours, given the number of fuel transactions directly relates to the number of vehicles on the road and numbers are comparatively low during the night-time,” the Gull application says.

Council officers have yet to consider the application and whether it needs to be publicly notified. Gull, however, says the effects of the new petrol station are “less than minor”.

The work will be thoroughly checked and certified by regulatory agencies before the station starts operating.