Agenda item - Land Between Clifton Wood And Clifton Phase 4 Development Yew Tree Lane

Agenda item

Land Between Clifton Wood And Clifton Phase 4 Development Yew Tree Lane

Minutes:

Councillor Corall Jenkins, Ward Councillor for Clifton South Ward, spoke for five minutes to request deferral of the decision on the application until the Local Plan Inspector’s review of the site was available, likely to be early in 2019. She stated that she was representing the views of those residents who had submitted objections to the outline planning permission, including the importance of the site in terms of conservation and its proximity to listed buildings. Councillor Corall Jenkins then took no further part in the meeting while the Committee discussed and voted on the item.

 

Rob Percival, Area Planning Manager, then introduced application 18/00056/POUT by Planning and Design Group (UK) Ltd on behalf of Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Trent University for outline planning permission for residential development with all matter reserved except access. The application was brought to Planning Committee as it is a major application which departs from some policies in the Development Plan, where there are important land use considerations and significant public interest.

 

Rob Percival presented the application to the Committee highlighting the following points:

 

a)  the site sits in the west of Clifton in the Barton Green area, adjacent to the Clifton Village conservation area. Access to the site would be through Hawksley Gardens with emergency access only through Finchley Close;

 

b)  a Traffic Assessment has been carried out in relation to access to the site which considers the impact on existing roads and the junction with the A453 at Crusader Island to be acceptable;

 

c)  in relation to the reserved matters, an indicative masterplan had been submitted which showed some retentions including; the bridleway to the east of the site, a green buffer along the western edge of the site with Clifton Woods and a row of trees across the site providing a wildlife corridor;

 

d)  regarding concerns about the impact on the Clifton Village Conservation Area and Clifton Hall and Church, the site sits alongside the conservation area, not within it, and a Heritage Impact Assessment classified the impact as less than substantial with due regard having been given to the relevant legislation;

 

e)  the inclusion of the site in a new Local Plan is currently under consideration by Planning Inspectors whose report is expected in the New Year. However, the site is identified for housing in the current Local Plan, is a longstanding allocated site and has been since 1997;

 

f)  Overall, it is proposed that the development of the site would cause less than substantial harm and would bring benefit to the area in terms of delivering new housing.

 

Following questions and comment from the Committee the following additional information was provided:

 

(g)  Richard Bines, Solicitor, provided advice to the Committee on their obligations in relation to section 72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 advising that there is a general overarching statutory duty to pay special attention to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance, with respect to any building or land in a conservation area, in exercise of planning functions. As the land in question was not in a Conservation Area, the Committee did not have to have regard to this duty in consideration of the application;

 

(h)  in relation to section 66 (1) of the Act, Richard Bines advised that the duty to have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building or its setting or any features of special architectural or historical interest which it possesses applied to the application as the Committee was considering whether to grant planning permission for development which affects listed buildings or their settings. The duty requires considerable importance and weight to be given to the desirability of preserving the setting of all listed buildings including Grade II. However, whilst there is therefore a strong presumption against the grant of planning permission, the duty does not create a bar to the granting of planning permission. A balancing exercise must be undertaken between the harm caused and the benefit the development will bring;

 

(i)  Paul Seddon, Director of Planning and Regeneration, outlined the process for agreeing the new Local Plan which has several more stages to go through of which the Inspector’s report is one. The new Local Plan will not be ready for adoption for at least six to seven months. The current live application must be dealt with in a timely way and has been assessed against the current, live Local Plan;

 

(j)  reserved matters, including the scale of the development and the size of the ‘buffer’ will be brought back to the Committee for approval as part of detailed planning consent;

 

(k)  alternative access routes to the site have been considered. Access to the south would be through undeveloped land and would impact on the green belt and create long isolated access roads. Access to the north through Barton Green would create problems with new junctions onto the dualed, A453;

 

(l)  James Ashton, Transport Strategy Manager advised that the Transport Assessment submitted with the application had found Hawksley Gardens to be wide enough to cope with the anticipated increase in traffic. The redesign of the A453 had taken into account the amount of traffic generated by sites in the Local Plan. Highways England which manages the A453 was consulted on the application and did not object.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)  grant planning permission subject to:

i)  no adverse comments being received by 7 January 2019 which both, arise from the publicity of the Planning Application as a departure from the Development Plan and consist of issues other than those already addressed by the report;

ii)  the prior completion of a Section 106 planning obligation to be secured in accordance with paragraph 7.76 of the report and to include:

a.  a requirement to provide 20% affordable housing on site should any subsequent reserved matters submission comprise of 25 dwellings or more;

b.  the provision of an approved scheme in respect of on-site amenity land and the Sustainable Urban Drainage System;

c.  on-going management and maintenance arrangements for any on-site amenity land and the Sustainable Urban Drainage System;

d.  a financial contribution towards the enhancement of public open space offsite;

e.  a financial contribution towards the expansion and/or enhancement of education facilities in the area;

f.  a financial contribution of £25,000 towards the enhancement and improvement of existing footpaths in the adjacent Clifton Woods;

g.  provisions for the long term maintenance arrangements for the emergency access;

iii)  conditions substantially in the form of the indicative conditions listed in the draft decision notice at the end of the report;

 

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Planning and Regeneration to determine the final details of both the conditions and the section 106;

 

(3)  note that the Committee is satisfied that Regulation 122(2) Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 is complied with, in that the planning obligation sought is (a) necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms, (b) directly related to the development and (c) fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development;

 

(4)  note that Committee are satisfied that the planning obligation(s) sought that relate to infrastructure would not exceed the permissible number of obligations in accordance with Regulation 123(3) of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010.

 

Councillors Roger Steel and Josh Cook asked for their votes against the above resolution to be recorded.

 

Supporting documents: