Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance).

Report of the Corporate Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance) on the demolition of office building and erection of 128 flats with associated car parking, landscaping, amenity space, bin and cycle storage, with alterations to existing and formation of new access on Broadwater road and alterations to the existing access on broad court.

The application site was located on the east side of Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City and comprised an office building with extensive areas of car parking beneath it and to the rear.  It was a level site with a large office building located on the north-west corner of the site with attractive landscaping bordering the road.

The sites neighbours included the former Shredded Wheat factory site opposite, now cleared in anticipation of if its future redevelopment for housing, south of which was the former Roche Office building which had recently been converted to residential flats and a significant number of homes around it on Otto Road and Penn Way.

North of the site, on the opposite side of Broadwater Court was a vehicle repair centre and MOT facility, a vehicle hire parking area and beyond this a range of small business premises.  Broadwater Court was a private road.

East of the site and beyond the large rear car park and the eastern boundary lined with trees was a further larger area of open car park.

This application was presented to the Development Management Committee because the proposal was in conflict with the development plan and had been advertised as a departure.

Councillor M.Cowan, Ward Councillor, provided a statement to be read out, opposing the application, saying that there was a lack of visitor parking which needed to be addressed. There were also concerns that the applicant wanted to provide social housing of various types and that the site could be sold as soon as consent was granted.  There was no supplementary planning documents governing all the windfall applications in the Welwyn Garden City industrial area so there was no ‘guiding hand’ on density, height, materials, amenity space or any of the other aspects that would be included in a new planned suburb. The number of homes that had emerged in the industrial area over the last few years was many thousand, yet each has little relation to each other, many are deficient in amenities.

Councillor S.Kasumu had technical difficulties during the presentation and discussion so was unable to participate in the vote.

Following discussion, it was proposed and seconded by Councillors J.Broach and S.Elam and

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

That planning permission be APPROVED subject to completion of a S106 planning agreement and with suggested conditions including additional 2 conditions in response to the LLFA consultation and deletion of condition 18.

The development hereby permitted shall be carried out in accordance with the approved Drainage Strategy prepared by Perega and the Drainage Strategy prepared by Thomasons, reference C12885-ZZ-XX-C-0001-P3, issued June 2020 submitted in support of this application, and the following mitigation measures:

1. Limiting the surface water run-off generated by critical storm events to 2 l/s during the 1 in 100 year + 40% climate change event.

2. Providing storage to ensure no increase in surface water run-off volumes for all rainfall events up to and including the 1 in 100 year + climate change event providing m3 a minimum of 170 (or such  storage volume agreed with the LLFA) of storage volume in attenuation tank and permeable paving.

3. Discharge of surface water from the private network into the Thames Water public surface water network. The mitigation measures shall be fully implemented prior to occupation and subsequently in accordance with the timing/phasing arrangements embodied within the scheme, or within any other period as may subsequently be agreed, in writing, by the local planning authority.

Reason: To prevent flooding by ensuring the satisfactory disposal and storage of surface water from the site and to reduce the risk of flooding to the proposed development and future occupants in accordance with Policy R7 of the Welwyn Hatfield District plan and the National Planning Policy Framework.

No development shall take place until a detailed surface water drainage scheme for the site based on the approved drainage strategy and sustainable drainage principles has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The drainage strategy should demonstrate that the surface water run-off generated up to and including 1 in 100 year + climate change critical storm will not exceed the run-off from the undeveloped site following the corresponding rainfall event.  The scheme shall subsequently be implemented in accordance with the approved details before the development is completed. The scheme shall include:

1.Detailed engineered drawings of all the proposed SuDS features including cross section drawings, their location, size, volume, depth and any inlet and outlet features including any connecting pipe runs.

2. Inclusion of silt traps for the protection of residual tanked elements.

3.Final detailed post-development calculations for all rainfall events up to and including the 1 in 100 year + 40% climate change storm, including half drain down times for attenuation features

4. Final detailed management plan to include arrangements for adoption and any other arrangements to secure the operation of the scheme throughout its lifetime.

Reason: To prevent the increased risk of flooding, both on and off-site in accordance with Policy R7 of the Welwyn Hatfield District plan and the National Planning Policy Framework.

Condition 18 - Deleted - as another condition requires all parking to be provided in accordance with the plan showing the basement parking area and arrangements.