Agenda item

Land Off Greenhill Road Coalville Leicestershire  

The Principal Planning Officer presented the report to Members.

Miss J Tebbatt, objector on behalf of residents, addressed the Committee. She stated that she was addressing Members to ask them to seek amendments to the application that was in front of them. She asked that the attenuation bank on the land adjacent to 8 Jacquemart Close be as per the original approved plans, that the elevated viewing area be removed and the 1.8m height of boundary fences remain without imposing on or casting a shadow over the neighbouring properties. She asked that the previously untested 1.3 change in level is reviewed to ensure in keeping with the 1.17 gradient of Greenhill Road as a significant difference in height between the proposed dwellings and existing homes would have an impact on privacy. She raised concerns over the play area stating that it would lead to unsupervised nuisance and security concerns for the existing residents, that the lower level fencing would protect new resident’s privacy, but not that of the current, and the possibility of anti-social behaviour and damage to dwellings due to the trees proposed around the boundary.

Ms A Gilliver, agent, addressed the Committee. She advised that the applicant had been working closely with the officers and before Members was a well-designed, sustainable, accessible and deliverable development and if approved the applicant looked to be releasing the first houses in the second half of the year. She highlighted that the principle of development had been granted in January 2016 and had established the parameters, flood risk, highway impact and ecological constraints. She advised that the application was compliant with the Council’s Good Design SPD enabling the public areas to be well surveyed and connected, character areas highlighted, the design of the dwellings would be in keeping with the area and there would be a 20% provision of affordable homes. She informed the Committee that following statutory consultation the plans had been amended to address concerns and that all conditions would be adhered to before commencement of the development. She stated that National Forest Planting and play areas would be included and that the management of the estate would be done privately. She urged the Committee to grant permission.

Councillor R Adams asked if officers had the responses to the questions that he had raised in the briefing.

The Principal Planning Officer provided the following responses to the questions:-

-       That the outline planning permission included provision of a retail unit, with conditions attached to the outline permission to ensure that the shop was not brought forward on its own without the housing. There was no obligation to provide the shop as it was not identified as a need to have element of the development.

-       That the original outline permission included a condition to require the reserved matters application to demonstrate that if necessary a bus could operate around the site, so if required in future a bus route could be provided for the estate and as such a tracking layout was included in  the plans.

-       Yes, the site was in the Charnwood Forest character area and that at the public appeal the Inspector stated that the area fell within the Bardon landscape character area.

-       That the developer was not agreeable to amending the scheme to tally fully with the mix of affordable dwellings as sought by the Council’s Housing team, but officers could not reasonably push this matter further given that the scheme matched the findings of the HEDNA pretty well.

-       That the mix of housing types has been considered by Inspectors who have determined that housing mix does not fall within the definition of layout and scale. A condition should therefore be included allowing the council to agree the housing mix either at Reserved Matters stage or a later agreed date.

-       That the neighbouring properties adjacent to the site on the western and northern sides were consulted along with site and press notices. He advised that the requirement for development of the size before them was site and press notices which the Council had done and in addition had written to the adjacent properties.

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Councillor M B Wyatt advised that he had not taken part in any campaigning in relation to the application before the Committee and had come to the meeting with an open mind. He stated that on listening to the objectors he asked that a number of additional conditions be attached and that he was minded to defer the application due to the number of concerns raised.

The Legal Advisor informed Members that should they be minded to defer the application then any debate would need to be held at the next meeting.

Councillor M B Wyatt sought clarification on the procedure to defer.

Members were advised that if the application was deferred before any debate took place then a full debate could be had when the application was brought back to Committee.

Councillor M B Wyatt moved that the application be deferred to allow further consideration of the issues that had been raised in the objectors email. The motion was seconded by Councillor R Adams.

RESOLVED THAT:

The application be deferred to allow the applicant to further consider the four points that had been raised by the objector.