Agenda item

Land South Of The Green Donington Le Heath Coalville Leicestershire LE67 2GE

The Principal Planning Officer presented the report to Members.

Mr W Jennings, on behalf of Hugglescote and Donington le Heath Parish Council, addressed the Committee. He advised Members that the Parish had asked for the original application to be rejected as they had major concerns and he was now surprised to see that a new application had been submitted with very little change. He informed the Committee that the Parish Council undertook speed watch surveys at the location and that during a twenty minute period at the proposed development site they had recorded ten percent of vehicles exceeding the speed limit. He urged the Committee to reject the application on the grounds of highways safety and insufficient visibility at the access to the site. 

Mr M Miller, objector, addressed the Committee. He asked the Members to reject the application, highlighting the objections outlined in the report. He advised the Committee that the site was located on what could only be described as a single track road and was opposite business premises that large lorries and tractors struggled to turn into, that the site was an area of separation the local people regard as green belt and that from looking at Leicestershire County Council Archaeology maps there was probability that the land was a site of a medieval settlement, and that proposed condition 16 considers this. He informed Members that the local schools were oversubscribed and that the £100,000 contribution in the proposed section 106 for education would not be enough.

Mr A Ward, agent, addressed the Committee. He urged Members to support the officer’s recommendation and advised them that the proposal before them was a low density scheme that would provide family housing which would be very well landscaped, screened by the railway and provide new open space areas. He informed Members that the area of separation had been removed from the publication local plan, that there were no technical objections, all the S106 contributions would be met and it was a sustainable location adding that it would be a positive development for the village on an overgrown asset. He confirmed that there was no objection from the Highway Authority.

Councillor D J Stevenson stated that in the 45 years that he had been on the Council he had never seen an access to a development site as awful as the one before them and moved that the application be refused for that reason. It was seconded by Councillor R Johnson.

Councillor R Johnson expressed concerns that the applicant had not engaged with residents prior to submitting the application and agreed that the access to the proposed site was the worst that he had seen.

Councillor D Everitt stated that he endorsed the recommendation to refuse and expressed concerns that the LCC archaeologist had raised no concerns over the development of the site yet there appeared to be evidence of a settlement and felt that information such as that should have been included in the report.

The Head of Planning and Regeneration advised Members that the Local Highways Authority was adamant that it would not be able to support refusal on highways grounds and that the developer was not obliged to meet with residents when preparing a planning application.

 RESOLVED THAT:

The application be refused on the grounds that the access to the site raised safety concerns.

The Chairman advised Members that the next to items would be presented together but voted on separately.