Site for erection of nine houses and associated development.

The application was approved in accordance with the Case Officer’s recommendation, with additions to the content of the Section 106 agreement

The Principal Planning Officer gave a presentation on the application, which had been deferred by the Committee on 12 February 2014, highlighting the updates to the previous report.

In accordance with the criteria for public speaking, Mr P Burridge, Vice-Chairman of Credenhill Parish Council spoke on the Scheme. 

In accordance with paragraph 4.8.2.2 of the Council’s Constitution,   Councillor RI Matthews, the local ward member, spoke on the application.

He commented on a number of issues including:

The offer of the applicant’s agent set out at paragraph 6 of the report responded to the local community’s wish to see a bus layby established to improve highway safety.  The owner of the land required for the layby had indicated that they would release the necessary land.

He referred to a number of e-mail exchanges with Council officers and the police which he asserted emphasised the highway safety issues at the location and the extent to which these would be mitigated by the provision of a bus layby.  He reiterated that evidence from the Safer Roads Partnership recorded more accidents in the location than had been reported to the Committee.  He therefore supported the use of all the S106 money to provide a bus layby.  If this were not agreed he requested that the Committee refuse the application on highway safety grounds.

The debate opened and the following principal points were made:

The principle of the development had to be supported given the Council’s lack of a 5 year housing supply.

The site visit had proved useful in assessing vehicle and pedestrian movements and the need for improved highway safety was clear.

The provision of the bus layby would address the concern about highway safety and all the Section 106 money should be allocated for that purpose.

The Transportation Manager had not objected on highway safety grounds.  It was questioned whether allocating all the Section 106 money for the provision of a bus layby was therefore necessary and the best use of those monies and whether, for example, the Parish Council could help to fund the layby instead.  The report stated that there was a risk that the scheme to provide the layby might not be achieved and that in that event after 5 years the Section 106 money, if allocated solely for the layby, would be returned to the applicant.

The Development Manager commented that it would be open to the Committee to provide in the Section 106 Agreement that if the layby scheme did not come to fruition the section 106 monies would be redirected to other purposes as set out in the original draft Heads of Terms provided..

The local ward member was given the opportunity to close the debate and supported the approval of the application on the basis outlined by the Development Manager.

RESOLVED: That subject to the completion of a Section 106 agreement (in accordance with the Heads of Terms attached as amended in accordance with the provision listed after condition 27 below ) planning permission be granted subject to the following conditions:

INFORMATIVES: