Site for erection of 6 dwellings, garaging and new vehicular accesses.

The application was approved in accordance with the Case Officer’s recommendation.

(Proposed erection of 6 dwellings, garaging and new vehicular accesses.)

The Senior Planning Officer gave a presentation on the application, and updates/additional representations received following the publication of the agenda were provided in the update sheet, as appended to these minutes.

In accordance with the criteria for public speaking, Mr T Cramp, of Allensmore Parish Council spoke in opposition to the scheme.  Mr S M’Samri, a local resident, spoke in objection.  Mr M Owens, the applicant, spoke in support.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, the local ward member, Councillor Bolderson, spoke on the application.

She made the following principal comments:

·        Allensmore lacked services.  There was no fibre broadband in the area of the application site.

·        The community had developed a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP).  The site was outside the settlement boundary. Any development outside the settlement boundary was not considered to be proportionate.  This was the principal reason for objection to the proposal.

·        The NDP was currently subject to a Regulation 16 consultation.  There had been no significant objections during the Regulation 14 consultation.  The report stated that limited weight could be given to the Plan at this stage.  It was requested that this be reconsidered given the advanced state of the Plan.

·        The application site was adjacent to the main built up area of the settlement.  The Strategic Housing Local Area Assessment identified a need for additional two and three bed homes in the Parish and considered the application site had potential for housing.  Policy RA1 required a minimum of 32 homes to be provided in the Parish by the end of 2031.  However, the Parish had already exceeded the minimum target by 3 dwellings.  Fifteen dwellings had been approved in the past year and applications for a further 15 dwellings, including the application site, had been lodged with the Planning department.  The Conservation Manager (Landscape) had commented that the number of dwellings proposed could be perceived as rather great in relation to the scale of the village.

·        She acknowledged that the council was not currently meeting its housing targets across the county as a whole.  However, she questioned whether parishes with limited services that were meeting or exceeding their own targets should be expected to accept development outside their settlement boundaries. She highlighted policy RA1 and NDP policies A3 and A4.

·        There was a difference of opinion as to the landscape impact that the Committee needed to consider.  Policy RA2 stated that proposals for development in locations identified in figure 4.15 such as Allensmore should demonstrate particular attention to the form, layout, character and setting of the site and its location in that settlement.  It was acknowledged that the pattern of the proposed development was similar to that on the opposite side of the road.  The applicant had amended the plans in response to local representations.

·        Although outside the settlement boundary the proposal was broadly compliant with NDP policy A4 with the exception of its scale. She spoke favourably about the design characteristics noting that they included  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54