Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from:

·       Cllr Fred Westmoreland who was substituted by Cllr John Smale

·       Cllr Brian Dalton who was substituted by Cllr Peter Edge

·       Cllr George Jeans

Cllr Chris Devine was in the Chair for this meeting.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 23 July 2015.

Resolved:

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutesof the meeting held on 23 July 2015.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of pecuniary interest.

Cllr Clewer noted that the application for the Hotel had been an information item on the agenda of the Salisbury Area Board which he was a member of, and therefore this did not constitute a pecuniary interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

Members of the public who wish to speak either in favour or against an application or any other item on this agenda are asked to register in person no later than 5.50pm on the day of the meeting.

The Chairman will allow up to 3 speakers in favour and up to 3 speakers against an application and up to 3 speakers on any other item on this agenda. Each speaker will be given up to 3 minutes and invited to speak immediately prior to the item being considered. The rules on public participation in respect of planning applications are detailed in the Council’s Planning Code of Good Practice.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution which excludes, in particular, questions on non-determined planning applications. Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda (acting on behalf of the Corporate Director) no later than 5pm on (4 clear working days, e.g. Wednesday of week before for a Wednesday meeting). Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

This application has been brought back before the Committee to formalise and agree the reasons for the Committee’s in principle refusal of the Inspector’s recommendation in relation to the copse, and to reach a decision on the application as a whole.

Public Participation

Mrs Patricia Sheppard (Land Owner) spoke in objection to the application.

Mr David Read spoke in objection to the application.

Mr Richard Sheppard (Land Owner) spoke in objection to the application.

Mr Alex Greaves (Barrister) spoke in support of the application.

Mr Glyn Paton spoke in support of the application.

Mr Barry Clark spoke in support of the application.

The Rights of Way Officer explained that the application had been brought back before the Committee to formalise and agree the reasons for the Committee’s in principle refusal (on 30 April 2015) of the Inspector’s recommendation in relation to the copse, and to reach a decision on the application as a whole.

The Officer then presented a report on the application, which involved three clear areas of land, two owned by Mr and Mrs Sheppard, and one owned by Wiltshire Council, as explained at the meeting.

The decisions open to the Committee as presented in the report were:

(i) To agree the Inspector’s recommendation in its entirety and register only

the copse, other than the north-west corner owned by Wiltshire Council,

based on the available evidence.

(ii) To reject the Inspector’s recommendations/findings in part and register all

of the land as a town or village green, based on the available evidence.

(iii) To reject the Inspector’s recommendations/findings in part and not

register any of the land, based on the available evidence.

(iv) To reject the Inspector’s recommendations in full and to modify the area

of land to be registered (for example only registering the field and/or the

land owned by Wiltshire Council), based on the available evidence.

The Committee was advised that if it refused any part of the Inspectors recommendations then clear reasons for refusal would be required.

Members of the Committee had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the Officer. These included queries relating to evidence which showed that the land owner had erected signs on the application land during the last 20 years, notifying the public that it was private land. In response it was stated that the public had always considered that they were allowed to walk through the copse by the landowner. It was also noted that there were far fewer instances of lawful sports and pastimes being enjoyed in the copse than in the field when the summary of written evidence was reviewed.

Members of the public had the opportunity to present their views to the Committee as detailed above.

The Local Unitary Member Councillor Chris Devine then spoke, explaining that he could see both sides view, and although he would look at any future  planning applications with a fresh mind, on this occasion he would abstain from voting.

A debate followed where the Committee decided to consider the Inspectors recommendations for the three individual areas of land separately and analysed the reasoning behind the Inspector’s recommendations for the three parcels of land and whether or not they felt the recommendations  were appropriate in the context of the evidence available  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101.

To receive details of completed and pending appeals.

The committee received details of the appeal decisions as detailed in the agenda.

To consider and determine planning applications in the attached schedule.

65 bed hotel with drive thru restaurant with associated parking, access and landscaping.

Public Participation

Mr Simon Berry (Agent) spoke in support of the application

Cllr Sven Hocking spoke in support of the application

Cllr John Lindley, representing the view of Salisbury City Council spoke in objection to the application.

The Senior Planning Officer presented a report which recommended approval of the application for a 65 bed hotel with drive thru restaurant with associated parking, access and landscaping, subject to completion of a section 106 obligation and 31 conditions. Key issues included highways impact and surface water schemes.

Members of the Committee had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the Officers. In response it was stated that a Transport Assessment had been carried out which detailed a forecast of predicted additional traffic flow on the A36 and on Millford Mill Road once the development was in place and details were provided on aspects of that assessment.

Members of the public then had the opportunity to present their views to the Committee, as detailed above.

The Local Unitary Member, Councillor Ian Tomes , then spoke in objection to the application, noting that the main concern was increased traffic on both the A36 and Milford Mill Road, which were already congested and that other sites in the city might be more suitable for the developments.

A debate followed where it was considered that the application would involve an increase to traffic on an already congested road. Members considered if the design of the hotel was favourable the impact on the route into the city along the A36 and if the site was suitable for this scale and type of development.

Resolved

The application be REFUSED for the following reasons:

1) The site is located in an out of town location, and proposes a new hotel use and a fast food drive through restaurant use. 80 car parking spaces are also proposed. The NPPF supports a sequential, town centre first approach, and defines hotels and drive through restaurant uses as main town centre uses. The adopted Wiltshire Core Strategy policies related to retail & tourism provision seek to enhance the vitality and viability of the town centres in Wiltshire through promoting the regeneration of central areas and delivery of new growth at settlements to support and strengthen the vitality of centres.

Furthermore, the Wiltshire and Swindon Visitor Accommodation Future Study 2014 makes a clear recommendation that further budget hotels in Salisbury should ideally be located within the city centre in order to maximise the contributions that they could make in terms of supporting the development of the city's evening economy through generating business for restaurants and bars, and in terms of minimising unnecessary traffic movement. Salisbury does not currently have any budget hotel provision in the city centre, and it is therefore very important that such provision comes forward in the city centre to support the night time economy. Furthermore, the thrust of National and Local Planning policy is to locate such uses within the centre of settlements in sustainable locations. Based on these requirements,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

Any other items of business which, in the opinion of the Chairman, should be taken as a matter of urgency 

There were no urgent items.

However, it was agreed to hold a site visit should app - 15/08251/FUL (Land at Brooklet Farm, Stapleford) come to Committee.