Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To note any urgent items of business which the Chairman has consented to being considered under the provisions of Section 100(B) 4(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business to be considered at the meeting.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)  any business on the agenda

b)  any urgent additional items to be considered

c)  any matters arising out of those items

and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

Members were requested to declare the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or other interests, not already on their register of interests, in any item on the agenda and withdraw from the meeting at the appropriate time.

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

In the interests of transparency, Councillor Allan Bailey requested that it be noted that he did not attend or participate in the meeting of Clowne Parish Council when application 20/00209/FUL was considered.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 12^th February 2020.

Councillor Nick Clarke requested that an amendment be made to the minutes to include a comment he had made in the meeting that pointed out that the Inspector’s decision in an appeal relating to a neighbouring site was not to be considered as a precedent to be applied to the application being considered. Committee were advised that the Minutes did state that it was noted that the appeal decision was distinguished from the application before them, although the comment was not attributed to Councillor Nick Clarke.

The Chair considered that the Minutes sufficiently covered the point raised and no amendment was required.

Moved by Councillor Chris Kane and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RESOLVED - that the minutes of a meeting of the Planning Committee held on 12th February 2020 be approved as a true and correct record.

Councillor James Watson requested that his abstention be recorded in the Minutes.

Further details relating to the application were included in the Supplementary Report, which included additional recommended conditions.

The Planning Manager (Development Control) presented the report which gave details of the application and highlighted the location and features of the site and key issues.

Mr and Mrs Whittaker attended the meeting remotely and spoke against the application.

The agent on behalf of the applicant attended the meeting remotely and spoke in support of the application.

Committee considered the application having regard to the Bolsover District Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework. The main issues considered in the determination of this application were:

·         the principle of the development;

·         highway safety considerations, including whether the development would be provided with a safe and suitable access and the impact of the development on the local road network;

·         landscape and visual impact of the development;

·         whether the development has a suitable design and layout and provides sufficient residential amenity;

·         the ecology impacts of the development;

·         potential contamination risks;

·         drainage requirements;

·         impacts on infrastructure, including recreation and leisure, education and health

·         facilities; and

·         heritage and archaeology impacts.

Members discussed the impact of plot 5 in particular on the amenity of neighbouring properties and were advised of the negotiations that had taken place regarding the design to mitigate the impact and the consequent details to ensure that relevant planning policy was complied with.

It was concluded that the previous permissions and Local Plan allocation for residential development weighed heavily in favour of granting planning permission for the current application because the acceptability of the current site for housing was well established. In all other respects, the application was considered to be acceptable in planning terms for the reasons set out in the report and although there were some minor technical issues outstanding, these were very likely resolvable and therefore they did not weigh negatively in the overall balance of considerations.

Committee discussed the proposal to include further recommendations in addition to those proposed by officers in the report and supplementary papers, which were to require the provision of electric vehicle charging points for all dwellings on the site and for the road within the site to be made up to an adoptable highway standard.

It was moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane that the application be approved in line with the officer recommendation as set out in the report and supplementary papers, also to include the conditions proposed by Members as outlined above. On being put to the vote, the vote was tied. The Chair exercised his casting vote in favour of the motion. It was therefore:-

RESOLVED that subject to satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues in respect of highway safety and surface water drainage, application 20/00209/FUL be approved subject to prior entry into a s.106 legal agreement containing the following planning obligations:

A         Education contribution of £17,176.59 (Index Linked) for the provision of 1 infant pupil at Clowne Infant and Nursery School.

B         A commuted sum of £14,586  ...  view the full minutes text for item PL5-20/21

Committee considered the report of the Planning Manager (Development Control) on the Planning Service’s performance against the Government’s quality of decision making targets.

During the 6 months since the last monitoring period, the Council had no appeals on major planning applications determined, had won 98.7% of appeals on non-major applications and had no appeals against enforcement notices.

The Planning Manager gave a presentation, outlining the 5 appeals decisions that had been received from January 2020 to June 2020. 4 related to non-major developments and 1 to a validation dispute, which was deemed not to be valid. Of the non-major development appeals, 2 had been allowed and 2 had been dismissed. The two appeals which were dismissed related to inappropriate development in the Greenbelt, where the Inspector agreed with officer’s interpretation and the decisions.

One of the appeals that was allowed related to extended opening hours of McDonald’s at Tally’s End, Balborough. The Inspector agreed to vary the conditions to allow an extra hour of opening in the morning and the evening. The Inspector disagreed with the Council’s view on the impact on the neighbouring properties.

The second allowed appeal related to a dispute over whether a building had been in agricultural use, to allow the application to seek prior approval for its alternative use. The Inspector took a different view to the Council on whether the criteria had been fulfilled.

Both allowed appeals involved the Inspector reaching a different judgement on the particular cases and did not have any wider policy implications

The Council was exceeding its appeal decision targets and this indicated that the Council decision-making on planning applications and enforcement issues continued to be sound.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane

RESOLVED that the report be noted and that appeal decisions continue to be reported to Committee every 6 months.

(Planning Manager (Development Control))

The Principal Planning Officer (Planning Policy) presented the report which sought approval for the revised name and terms of reference for the Local Plan Steering Group.

Following the successful implementation of the new Local Plan, the Group had considered a report which sought approval to rename the Local Plan Steering Group as the Local Plan Implementation Advisory Group and update its Terms of Reference to reflect the change of purpose. At an informal meeting in July, it was found that Members wished to stay involved during the implementation of the Local Plan and the delivery of its proposals and projects.

In addition to these changes, in light of the publication of the Planning White Paper and the Government’s current consultation on proposals to reform the planning system the Terms of Reference were updated slightly from that discussed in July. This enabled the group to endorse the suspension of work on the Local Plan implementation projects and prioritise and dedicate resources to recommence plan-making tasks as required.

The group had been provided with outline proposals of projects to be undertaken and what further documents needed to be produced following the adoption of the new local plan.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane

RESOLVED – That the proposed Terms of Reference for the Local Plan Implementation Advisory Group at Appendix 2 to this report be approved.