Agenda item

Jamie Denman, Brian Peckham, and Martin Snook spoke in support of the application.

Cllr Charles Cook, Chairman of Minety Parish Council, spoke in support of the application.

The Planning Officer introduced the report which recommended that planning permission be refused for the reasons set out in the report. The application was for the construction of 8 dwellings and related to an application for consideration under item 7b of the agenda. Attention was drawn to the late observations which highlighted comments on drainage implications and the level of public support for the development. It was explained that the argument that the development would support the retention of the public house and provide affordable housing could not be given significant weight as there was no legal agreement linking the finance from the development to the retention of the public house and the housing constructed would be market housing. The Planning Officer explained the suggested reasons for refusal, highlighting conflict with the policies of the adopted Wiltshire Core strategy; that the scale of the development was not appropriate in the location, there were poor levels of amenity space and the design was out of character for the locality.

There were no technical questions.

Members of the public then addressed the Committee as detailed above.

The Planning Officer responded to comments from the public to confirm that whilst the application was an outline planning application consent was sought for details of access, scale, layout and appearance and only landscaping was a reserved matter.

The local member, Cllr Berry spoke in support of the application, underlining the strong local support for the development.

In the debate that followed, members commented that there was no legal agreement in place to ensure the application would be an enabling development therefore this was not a material consideration. Members sympathised with the owner of the public house but could not support this development as it contravened the Wiltshire Core Strategy. The Committee sought advice from officers on whether the development of an enabling agreement and selection of building materials could be delegated to officers. Officers advised that materials could be controlled by condition but the application sought approval for the scale, layout and appearance of the development now and these could not be conditioned as reserved matters for future approval. Potentially preparation of a legal agreement to tie the residential development to the enhancement of the Public house could be delegated to officers but extensive additional information submissions were required in that respect and the applicant had already been advised of the requirement in advance of revisions to the application and had not addressed the mater comprehensively to date. The Committee expressed support for the principle of development on the site subject to linking this to enhancements to the public house to secure its retention and encouraged the applicant to submit a revised scheme. It was confirmed that the applicant could withdraw the application before a decision notice was issued. 

Resolved:

To REFUSE planning permission for the following reasons:

1.     The proposal is for 8No new dwellings in the open countryside with no material considerations or special justification which outweigh the overwhelming policy objection. The development does not represent 'limited infill' and is thus contrary to saved policy H4 of the North Wiltshire Local Plan 2011, Core Policies 1, 2 and 13 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy and Paragraph 55 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

2.     The application is not considered to be of a high quality design and the private amenity space is wholly insufficient for proposed houses and results in an inadequate level of residential amenity for future occupants of the proposed dwellings. The proposed development is wholly out of character with the form, scale, bulk, mass and detail of existing dwellings in the locality resulting in harm to the character and appearance of the locality. Parking provision, immediately adjacent to the semi detached and detached dwellings is considered to give rise to an unacceptable impact on the living conditions of future residents in respect of noise and disturbance. The development as a whole is considered contrived and representative of overdevelopment of the site. The development therefore is contrary to Core Policy 57 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy. And paragraphs 14 and 17 of the National Planning Policy Framework.