Agenda item

Demolition of Existing Buildings to Facilitate the Mixed Use Development of the Site to Provide 61 Residential Units, Two Commercial Units of B1 Use, One Retail Unit, and Associated Car Parking.

Public Participation

Mark Blackburn spoke in Objection to the Application

David Von Zeffman spoke in Objection to the Application

Keith Crockett spoke in Objection to the Application

Gavin Hall spoke in Support of the Application

Geoff Naish spoke in Support of the Application

Cllr Trevor Batchelder spoke from Wilton Town Council, in Objection to the Application.

The Senior Planning Officer drew attention to late correspondence circulated at the meeting and introduced the application for Demolition of Existing Buildings to Facilitate the Mixed Use Development of the Site to Provide 61 Residential Units, Two Commercial Units of B1 Use, One Retail Unit, and Associated Car Parking. The application was recommended for Approval.

There were two current access points to the site. One of which was not currently used by the owner.

As the development was subject to a feasibility study, the elements up for consideration at the meeting were the access and the number of dwellings.

A site visit had taken place earlier that day.

The Committee then had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the Officer, it was noted there was no affordable housing was offered by the applicant as part of the scheme. The applicant wanted to know whether they would get permission for the scheme before he carried out a feasibility study.

Affordable housing was separate to CIL and it would be possible to ask for an education contribution. The Education authority would want some from this development.

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

The Unitary Division Member, Councillor Edge noted that he called the application in because of the impact on the centre of Wilton. He was disappointed to see the old building was due to be removed. However the continuation of industrial use on this site was not viable.

The Crow lane access was often hit by large lorries, causing damage to buildings either side. In his view, the development would ease traffic congestion. He noted that access from the C&O tractor site was due to come available in the near future, this could be considered as an alternative.

He confirmed that emergency vehicles could currently access the site and would still be able to in the future.

A Flood protection investigation has been worked on and there had been lots of negotiations on putting forward a proposal.

The Old coach works was next to a listed building on the site, any development would need to maintain some access for that resident. He asked the Committee to move approval with conditions.

Cllr Fred proposed Approval in line with Officer’s recommendation. This was seconded by Cllr Hewitt.

The Committee discussed the application, noting that the site was not suitable for industrial use any longer. The applicant intended to move the business to another site where the existing staff could be taken on.

There were access problems due to the narrow width of Crow Lane and North Street.

This site was ripe for development; however the Committee felt that an affordable housing allocation should be included. There was also no public transport contribution and flooding was also a consideration which it was thought could be adressed.

It was noted that SSSI had not been ignored, and was included in the report.

If the agreement could not be reached on the viability in 6 months then the development would be refused.

The motion for APPROVAL was not carried.

Cllr Devine moved the motion for REFUSAL against Officer’s recommendation for the reasons as set out in the decision below.

This was seconded by Cllr Tomes.

Resolved

That application S/2003/1016 was REFUSED against Officer’s recommendation for the following reasons:

1.    The precautionary approach adopted by The National Planning Policy Framework is that the overall aim of decision-makers should be to steer new development to Flood Zone 1 and a 'Sequential Test' must be undertaken to see whether there are alternative lower risk sites that could accommodate the development. The proposal is for a 'more vulnerable' form of development proposed within Flood Zone 2/3. The NPPF makes clear that such development should be located in Flood Zone 1 unless it can be demonstrated that no such sites are available.

The council can demonstrate that there is a readily available and deliverable 5-year supply of housing land in Flood Zone 1, the zone of least risk, within the Local Planning Authority area to meet the housing development needs of the area. South Wiltshire has 5.69 years of deliverable housing land supply and therefore there is no urgent or immediate need for further housing to be permitted on this site to meet strategic requirements.

The applicant has not demonstrated that the site should be brought forward for housing development ahead of other sites in Flood Zone 1. The proposal would

therefore represent an unacceptable form of development with particular regard to its flood zone location, the flood vulnerability of the residential development and the sequential test of the NPPF, NPPG and contrary to Core Policy 67 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy.

2.    The applicant has provided a viability assessment dated the 7th April 2016 which outlines the applicants case that the proposed development is not considered to be viable to provide the required contributions for affordable housing and other infrastructure contributions. The local planning authority's assessment of this document indicates that there is scope to provide some contributions towards infrastructure requirements associated with the site.

Therefore the proposed development, does not make provision for 40% affordable housing on site as required by core policy 43 of the Adopted Wiltshire Core strategy nor does it make provision for other infrastructure requirements including contributions towards the cost of a traffic regulations order to control parking on the estate, Education contributions towards primary and secondary school education in the area, on site public art contribution or contribution towards waste and recycling as required by core policy 3 of the adopted Wiltshire Core strategy.

3.    The site is located in the historic market town of Wilton and will be served by several narrow access roads. The development would result in significant traffic generation which would utilise the existing access points. Traffic generated by this residential development is likely to result in 24 hour use of the site on an ad hoc basis by residents to the detriment of the amenity of neighbouring residential properties situated on these access roads, as such the proposal is considered to be contrary to policy CP57 (vii) of the Wiltshire Core strategy.

Councillors Westmoreland, Clewer and Hewitt requested their dissent of the decision noted.