Venue: Town Hall, High Street, Chippenham, SN15 3ER
Contact: Democratic Services Email: committee@wiltshire.gov.uk
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Apologies To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting. Minutes: Apologies were received from:
Cllr Howard Greenman Cllr Liz Alstrom |
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting To approve as a true and correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 18 December 2024. Supporting documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2024 were presented to the Committee.
It was raised that the minutes be amended to note the statement read out by Cllr Gavin Grant on behalf of Mrs Kim Power referencing application PL/2023/07797: Land Off Park Road, Malmesbury, Wilts.
Resolved:
To approve as a true and correct record and sign the minutes.
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee or Monitoring Officer. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Chairman's Announcements To receive any announcements through the Chairman. Minutes: There were no Chairman’s announcements. |
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Public Participation 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 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 on 15 January 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 17 January 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.
Minutes: The Committee noted the rules on public participation.
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Planning Appeals and Updates To receive details of completed and pending appeals and other updates as appropriate. Supporting documents: Minutes: The Committee noted the contents of the appeals update. |
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PL/2022/05783: Land to West of Care Home (Former Divisional Police Headquarters), Wood Lane, Chippenham, SN15 3HS Development of 17 No. dwellinghouses (Use Class C3), including 7 no. affordable units, associated works, and demolition of the existing car park structure. Supporting documents: Minutes: Public Participation
Planning Officers introduced the report which recommended that the Committee approve planning permission, subject to conditions, for the Development of 17 No. dwellinghouses (Use Class C3), including 7 no. affordable units, associated works, and demolition of the existing car park structure.
Members of the Committee then had the opportunity to ask technical questions to the officer. The following was clarified:
That there would be boundary treatment to avoid overflow parking.
That it was within the S106 to request affordable housing to be offered to Chippenham residents first, but this was unable to be strictly guaranteed.
That an arboriculturist had completed the survey of trees and submitted a report.
That the biodiversity net gain would be +0.14. The application was submitted before the requirement to provide a minimum 10% net gain was introduced, and for this application only a gain of any amount is required.
In the Tree Comparison Plan, the old scheme proposed 16 new trees, whereas the new scheme proposes 29 new trees.
The application originally came in as 100% affordable houses which has changed to 7 affordable houses and 10 “regular” houses. Wiltshire’s housing enabling officers advised this change due to concerns over whether an affordable housing provider would want to develop the entire site.
The land was not designated at the time of application.
The local member Cllr Liz Alstrom had a written statement read to the Committee.
Councillors thanked Chippenham TC and the public for their statements.
Councillors debated that all applications should be approved unless there’s good reason not to, which they believed was the case here because of the reasons set out in the proposal to refuse.
Councillors did not like the plans put forward and were not convinced that it was wholly right for the area.
The possibility for appeal was raised should the application be refused. Planning Officers advised there was a real possibility of losing the appeal and having costs awarded against the Council. Conditioning currently within the recommendation would also need to be argued and the inspector would need to agree to them.
The possibility for deferral was also considered.
Conditions around sustainability were also considered by the Committee.
The committee considered the condition of the current trees and the fact that they would be replaced with arguably more suitable trees in the application.
During debate, a motion to refuse was proposed by Cllr Clare Cape and seconded by Cllr Nic Puntis for the reasons that the application would have an adverse impact on trees and biodiversity, the design and layout which doesn’t make best use of space, and that the application did not comply with the following:
· Chippenham Neighbourhood Plan Policies: H2, TC4, SCC1, SCC2, · Wiltshire Core Strategy Policies: CP57, CP58, CP60, CP61, · CP64, · Wiltshire Design Guide SPD, National Design Guide, and NPPF (Section 12)
Resolved
To refuse the application
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Urgent Items Any other items of business which, in the opinion of the Chairman, should be taken as a matter of urgency. Minutes: There were no urgent items. |