Agenda item

Variation of conditions 4 & 15 of 13/02543/OUT to remove the requirement for the use of building as a proposed health centre.

Public Participation

Mr Speer (Agent) spoke in support of the application

Senior Planning Officer, Warren Simmonds presented the application for a Variation of conditions 4 & 15 of 13/02543/OUT to remove the requirement for the use of a building as a proposed health centre, and 17/11704/REM  - 28 dwellings and health centre, which had been approved in 2016.

It was noted that a Section 106 legal agreement was entered in to by the land owner to provide these things on the site.

Since the original applications were approved in 2016, quite extensive efforts had been made to find a user for the proposed health centre provision, with no avail.

It was recommended that the applications 18/09004/VAR and 18/09164/VAR be approved subject to the landowner entering into a modified Section 106 legal agreement to provide a one-off financial contribution of £200,000 to Wiltshire Council to be used for community project(s) in the Alderbury and Whaddon village area.

Attention was drawn to the late correspondence circulated at the meeting which detailed the updated proposal of a three-staged schedule of payments from the developer and the type of use for the funds.

Members had the opportunity to ask technical questions of the Officer, where it was clarified that this site differed from the Old Sarum site, in that the medical centre had not yet been built here, whereas at Old Sarum the build Doctors Surgery had been completed and laid empty for some time. The £200k set aside to build the medical centre here could be transferred to the parish council for use on the village hall which was central to the village, unlike the land where the medical centre had been proposed.

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

The main points included that the owners had instructed extensive work be undertaken to try and identify potential users, however this had been fruitless. They had also been determined that there should be a benefit to the village, and therefore had supported the proposal to transfer the original £200k towards a facility elsewhere which would benefit the village more.

The Division Member, Cllr Richard Britton spoke noting that when this application had originally come to committee, he had felt it should be deferred until evidence showed that a medical centre could be provided, and here we are now being told the medical centre cannot be provided.

He was thankful to the land owner for continuing to support the village by allocating the £200k to a meaningful benefit for the village. The first tranche payment would allow work to get underway on the village hall.

He supported the proposal as it would enable work on the village hall, which was a benefit for the wider village community.

Cllr Britton moved the motion of approval in line with Officers recommendation. This was seconded by Cllr Hewitt.

A debate then followed, where the key issues raised included that the original proposal had been supported by a local doctor, the reality of a viable medical centre on the site had not come to fruition, fortunately, something good would come out of this.

The Committee then voted on the motion of approval in line with Officers recommendations, with delegated authority to the Head of Development Services in line with late correspondence.

Resolved

Members resolved to delegate authority to the Director of Economic Development & Planning for:

1. The variation of approved planning applications 13/02543/OUT and 17/11704/REM (the outline planning consent and reserved matters planning consent) to remove the requirement for the provision of an on-site local health centre (leaving the local health centre site undeveloped), subject to:

2. The modification of the existing Section 106 legal agreement to remove the requirement to provide the local health centre but instead to provide a financial contribution of £200,000 to Wiltshire Council (to be paid in three increments as described), the financial contribution to be used for improvements to the Alderbury Village Hall and/or other community project(s) in the Alderbury and Whaddon village area(s).