Agenda item

Report of the Head of Planning.

Report of the Head of Planning regarding an application submitted under Section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act, which sought to substitute a range of approved plans with new plans which included several revisions. The changes to the plans were summarised as follows:

·        Revisions to the Parking Strategy to reflect an amended allocation of parking spaces, comprising a change from designated commercial spaces to shared commercial and residential parking (with no loss of parking spaces from previous approval).

·        Changes to the internal street layout to control access to private areas by the imposition of automatic, fob operated bollards to create a private parking area outside the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) and a raised table for traffic calming.

·        Introduction of a temporary bin collection point for the houses on Harrier Way.

·        Amended landscaping detail to reflect the revisions.

The application was presented to the Committee because it was a major development, and the Borough Council had an interest in the land/property. Officers advised of a transcription error to the application reference in paragraph 10.3 of the published report, which should have read 6/2021/0529/VAR.  

The Highway Authority had been consulted on the application and had objected to the proposal for the following reasons:

·        The Highway Authority had received a Section 278 application from the developer and consequently, a Stage 2 Road Safety Audit had been undertaken to check the suitability of the designs proposed. The Audit had raised concerns, and the Highway Authority were expecting further design changes to be made to the road and parking layouts.

·        Some of the plans submitted as part of the variation of condition application had already been superseded by the developer’s latest Section 278 plans. If the Committee were to grant the variations, they would relate to plans which were already out of date.

·        It was likely that all of the highway-related plans would include changes as the s278 process progressed, and it would be premature for the applicant to apply for variations in advance of Technical Approval being issued for the Section 278 application.

Officers acknowledged the objection raised by the Highway Authority, but cautioned that the application was critical for Lovell, the applicants, and the Council, in order to progress the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) in advance of marketing the houses in phase 1. Once the Highway Authority were satisfied with the detail of the Section 278 application, a further application would be submitted to the planning department to supersede any out-of-date plans that require updating. It was therefore considered that the application could be determined to progress the site, and that an informative be prepared to acknowledge the concerns of the Highway Authority.

The applicant had provided a statement which was read out during the meeting by the Governance Officer. The statement emphasised that the total number of parking spaces would remain the same, that there would be more flexible use of the spaces and that parking restrictions would be easier to follow.  

It was proposed and seconded by Councillors A. Hellyer and S. Tunstall and,

RESOLVED:

(12 in Favour, Unanimous)

That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions proposed in the

report.