Agenda item

The planning application was for a proposed car park at Unit B, Vision House, Fengate, Peterborough.

The main considerations set out in the report were:

·         Highway Implications

·         Loss of Employment Use

·         Visual Amenity

·         Flood Risk

It was officer’s recommendation that planning permission be granted with delegated authority to approve the relevant conditions.

The Head of Development and Construction provided an overview of the application and raised the following key points:

·         The site had no set out vehicular access or parking on site, which the application intended to rectify.

·         Previous, similar applications had been refused for proposal to place vehicular access at the side of the site, rather than the middle.

·         Currently, there was evidence that despite the absence of a dropped kerb vehicles were currently accessing the site

·         The application was thought to be acceptable, subject to consideration of the visibility splay towards Boongate. This visibility splay was short of the required length by 4 metres.

·         The Highways Authority recommended refusal of the application, on the grounds of insufficient visibility.

·         However, as the area of land adjacent to the visibility splay was clear and unlikely to be developed on, officer recommendation was to grant the application.

Councillor Nadeem, Ward Councillor, submitted a representation to the Committee which was set out in the Update Report. The Chairman confirmed that the Committee had read this submission.

The Committee emphasised the importance of the Highways Authority’s recommendation and apportioned significant weight to it. It was suggested that to refuse the application on the basis of 4 metres would be unreasonable, as the current situation was considered to be worse than that proposed.

The Principal Engineer (Highway Control) advised that as the visibility splay from the access fell short of requirements in one direction, refusal had been recommended by the Highway’s Authority.  The Principal Engineer (Highways Control) confirmed that the speed limit on the road was 30mph and further that the accident data showed very few accidents in the vicinity.  It was noted that when the adjacent land, which was not within the application site, was considered, the 47 metre required visibility was achieved. 

The Committee believed that the proposal was an improvement on the current situation of the site and felt it should encourage economic development.

A motion was proposed and seconded to agree that permission be granted, as per officer recommendation. The motion was carried by nine votes, with one abstaining from voting.

RESOLVED: (nine voted in favour, one abstained from voting) that planning permission is GRANTED with delegated authority to the Head of Construction and Development to approve the relevant conditions.

Reasons for the decision

The proposal was in accordance with Council policy save the length of visibility splay. It was considered that the requisite amount of visibility splay was not significantly less than provided in the Manual for Streets guidance.  In taking into consideration that visibility could be achieved when considering the adjacent land and that it was unlikely that future development of the adjacent land would impact upon visibility, the application was acceptable.