Agenda item

Councillor Harrington withdrew from the Committee.

The Planning and Highways Lawyer addressed the Committee and advised that the report contained an exempt appendix and if the Committee wished to discuss any information contained within this appendix, it should be considered whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting.

At its meeting on 22 July 2014, the Committee resolved to defer the consideration of the application on the grounds:

·         To resolve concern about overlooking/loss of amenity from plots 14 and 20 to the neighbouring properties on Williams Close;

·         To resolve highway concerns about the impact of the development of Soke Road;

·         To enable a review of the viability appraisal.

The planning application was for a residential development on the land to the west of Williams Close, comprising of 42 dwellings, access, associated works and landscaping.

The main considerations were:

·    Impact of Plots 14 and 20 on Williams Close

·    Impact on Soke Road

·    S106/ Viability

It was officer’s recommendation that planning permission be granted, subject to the conditions set out in the report.

The Planning and Development Manager provided an overview of the application and raised the following key points:

·         Plots 14 and 20 had been relocated so that they were further away from the site boundary.

·         The plans had been altered to provide a single access on to the eastern end of Soke Road, which was the wider section of road.

·         The Section 106 Legal Agreement had been reduced to £15,000, however this was considered acceptable by the Section 106 Officers, following detailed viability appraisal

Mr Matthew Taylor, Agent, addressed the Committee in support of the application and responded to questions from Members. In summary the key points highlighted included:

·         Discussion had been undertaken with Planning Officers to address the Committees concerns.

·         Plots 14 and 20 had been amended as well as the site access from Soke Road.

The Committee considered all their concerns to have been addressed.

A motion was proposed and seconded to agree that permission be granted, as per officer recommendation. The motion was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED: (unanimous) that planning permission is GRANTED subject to the conditions set out in the report.

Reasons for the decision

Subject to the imposition of conditions, the proposal was acceptable having been assessed in the light of all material considerations, including weighing against relevant policies of the development plan and specifically:

·           the site was allocated for housing and its development would help meet housing need

·           safe access into the site could be provided from Thorney Road and Soke Road and a new footpath link created.

·           the development could be accommodated within the site without any unacceptable adverse impact upon the amenities of the neighbouring properties

·           the development could be accommodated without any significant adverse impact upon existing landscaping

·           the impact of the proposed development upon ecology of the site was considered to be acceptable

·           the development would allow an acceptable level of amenity for the new residents including the provision of Public Open Space

·           subject to further archaeological assessment the proposal not adversely affected any buried remains

·           the site could be adequately drained

The proposal was therefore in accordance with Policy CS1, CS2, CS8, CS13, CS14, CS16, CS17, and CS22 of the Peterborough Core Strategy DPD (2011), policy SA6 of Peterborough Site Allocations DPD (2012), policies PP01, PP02, PP03, PP04, PP12, PP13, PP14, PP16, PP17 and PP19 of the Peterborough Planning Policies DPD (2012) and Sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2012)