Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Cllrs Ernie Clark, Adrian Foster, Howard Greenman, Pip Ridout, Jonathan Seed and Rob Yuill.

Cllr Foster was substituted by Cllr Helen Belcher OBE and Cllr Greenman was substituted by Cllr Bridget Wayman.   

In the absence of the Chairman, Cllr Christopher Newbury, the Vice-Chairman, presided over the meeting.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2025.

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2025 were presented for consideration, and it was,

Resolved:

To approve and sign the minutes as a true and correct record.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

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 no later than 10.20am on the day of the meeting. If it is on the day of the meeting registration should be done in person.

The rules on public participation in respect of planning applications are linked to in the Council’s Planning Code of Good Practice. 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. Representatives of Parish Councils are included separately in the speaking procedure, please contact the officer listed for details.

Members of the public and others will have had the opportunity to make representations on planning applications and other items on the agenda, and to contact and lobby their local elected member and any other members of the planning committee, prior to the meeting.

Those circulating such information prior to the meeting, written or photographic, are advised to also provide a copy to the case officer for the application or item, in order to officially log the material as a representation, which will be verbally summarised at the meeting by the relevant officer, not included within any officer slide presentation if one is made. Circulation of new information which has not been verified by planning officers or case officers is also not permitted during the meetings.

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 no later than 5pm Wednesday 5 February 2025 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 7 February 2025. 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.

The procedure on public participation was noted.

To receive details of completed and pending appeals, and any other updates as appropriate.

At the Chairman’s invitation, Adrian Walker (Development Management Team Leader) spoke to this item.

The officer stated that 1 appeal had been received since the last meeting, which was detailed in the agenda. This was for application 20/11598/OUT, Land East of Church Road, Laverstock, Salisbury. This had come to the Strategic Planning Committee in August with a recommendation to approve and had been refused by the Cttee. The appeal would be dealt with by way of written representations.  

As a further update, it was explained that application, PL/2024/06897 - Land off Sherston Road, Malmesbury, which had been deferred at the previous meeting to allow consultation with the Cotswolds National Landscape Board, was not included on this agenda as a response to the consultation had not been forthcoming in time for agenda publication. This was in part due to the shorter than usual gap between meetings. The item would come to a future meeting, hopefully the next one in March.

Material change of use of land for the stationing of caravans for residential purposes with dayrooms and hardstanding ancillary to that use (Resubmission of PL/2023/04820).

Public Participation

Mike Brewser spoke in objection to the application

Cllr Mel Allsop of Lydiard Millicent Parish Council spoke in objection to the application.

James Repper, Senior Planning Officer, introduced a report which recommended that the application for material change of use of land for the stationing of caravans for residential purposes with dayrooms and hardstanding ancillary to that use (Resubmission of PL/2023/04820) be delegated to the Director of Planning to approve, subject to conditions and successful conclusion of a Section 111 agreement, and appropriate assessment in relation to the North Meadows Special Area of Conservation to be concluded after approval.

Key details were stated to include the principle of development; highways matters and access; character, design & landscape impact and ecological impact.

Slides were shown to the Committee which showed location maps and aerial images. There were Rights of Way (RoW) close to the site. Access to one of these RoW (LMIL4) was via the same gate as the site access. Site plans were shown of the existing site, the proposed site and the previously refused scheme. In addition, photographs of the site and the access were shown to the Committee. 

There had been 32 letters of objection to the application from members of the public and the local division Member, Lydiard Millicent Parish Council and Purton Parish Council had objected. However, there were no objections from technical consultees, as there had been on previous applications. Highways had noted in relation to sustainability that the site was outside any settlement boundary. However, as Wiltshire Council could not at the present time demonstrate a sufficient supply of Gypsy and Traveller sites, combined with changes to the NPPF, this meant that for applications where this was the only issue, then the assumption was in favour of approval. It was considered that with conditions as suggested, there would not be sufficient harm to significantly outweigh the benefits in policy terms.

Members of the committee then had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the officer. Details were sought on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), land ownership and sustainability.

In response to the questions on BNG officers explained that applications must contain metrics as to how BNG will be achieved which were assessed by the ecology team, who were happy with the metrics for this application. However, full details were worked out following an approval to grant planning which contains a condition on BNG, as the applicant has to provide a BNG plan to discharge the condition afterwards.

Members highlighted that it would be useful in the new council following the elections in May, if all Cllrs, particularly those who would be on planning committees were provided with training on BNG.

In response to the questions regarding land ownership which the local Member had emailed the Committee about, it was explained that land ownership was not a planning matter in this instance. However, if evidence was provided which showed that the applicant did not own the land stated in the application the planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

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.