Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from:

·       Cllr Andy Oliver

·       Cllr Ian McLennan

·       Cllr Charles McGrath

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2024 were presented.

Resolved:

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes.

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.

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 minutes before the start 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.

Members of the public will have had the opportunity to make representations on the planning applications and to contact and lobby their local member and any other members of the planning committee prior to the meeting. Lobbying once the debate has started at the meeting is not permitted, including the circulation of new information, written or photographic which have not been verified by planning officers.

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 on Thursday 7 March 2024, 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 Monday 11 March 2024. 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.

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

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

It was;

Resolved:

To note the appeals report.

Conversion and Re-use of a Redundant Rural Building for Economic Development B2/B8 use.

Public Participation

Mr Philip Denahlik spoke in objection to the application

Mr Mark Everall spoke in objection to the application

Ms Anne Perkins spoke in objection to the application

Mr Geoff Wilde (Agent) spoke in support of the application

Cllr Phoebe Fortescue of Donhead St Mary Parish Council spoke in objection to the application.

Cllr David Curless of Semley Parish Council spoke in objection to the application.

A public speaker wished it to be noted that the late correspondence which had been circulated to the Committee at the start of the meeting was not also provided individually to each registered speaker.

Note: The procedure for late correspondence is for the Case Officer to verbally summarise new information, as set out in the Planning Committee Procedure para 5. There is no requirement for printed copies to be provided at the meeting.

The Senior Planning Officer, Joe Richardson, introduced a report which recommended that the application for conversion and re-use of a redundant rural building for economic development B2/B8 use. Key details were stated to include the principle of development including planning history, design and scale; amenity impacts including the AONB and PROW; ecological Impact; parking and highway Safety. 

Presentation slides shown at the meeting were also available online as supplement 1 to the agenda.

Attention was drawn to the late correspondence which had been emailed to members ahead of the meeting by an objector and the division Member.

Members of the committee then had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the officer. Details were sought on whether the application could be broken into separate matters, with regards to the retrospective permission and the change of use, where it was confirmed that the application must be considered as a whole.

The retrospective permission was due to the need to rectify changes to the barn, as it had not been built as per permission granted in 2019.

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

The unitary Division Member, Councillor Richard Budden then spoke on the application, noting the location of the site inside the Cranbourne Chase National Landscape (CCNL) area, the proximity to the A350 and nearby business parks, making reference to Planning Policy guidance which stated a balance of limited development in order to protect such areas.

Reference was made to National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) paras 85.88.89 and to Core Strategy CP34.

Cllr Budden challenged the Officer report at page 27, where it was stated that the building was considered to be in a sustainable location.

Cllr Budden noted that other estates of light industrial units in Semley would be more appropriate for the proposed development and therefor para 89 of the NPPF did not apply.

In addition, the site did not have access to sustainable transport solutions and the application failed to address strong objection from the CCNL and did not account for newly strengthened countryside act.

Cllr Budden then moved the motion of refusal for debate. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

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