Agenda and minutes

Councillor Khan welcomed everyone to the meeting. Members of the Committee and officers introduced themselves and the Chair outlined the procedures for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Fletcher.

Councillor Kay substituted for Councillor Fletcher.

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)     Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The order of business would be as per the agenda.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 July 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

Demolition of Vibast Community Centre, 169-173 Old Street and Health Centre, partial demolition of garages to west of Bath Street, the construction of 55 new homes (comprising 16 x 1 bed units, 25 x 2 bed units and 7 x 3 bed units), a community centre (D1 use), two flexible A1/A2 use units across three buildings, consisting of the erection of a part single, four and nine storey building at the junction of Old Street and Bath Street to provide a community centre and A1/A2 unit with residential above, a part two and three storey building at the junction of Old Street and St Luke’s Close to provide an A1/A2 unit and residential units and a part single and four storey residential building fronting Bath Street, alterations to the garages fronting Bath Street, the provision of a new amenity space to the east of Steadman Court and public realm improvement works across the site, inclusive of hard and soft landscaping, cycle parking, alterations to entrances and alterations to boundary treatment. Application re-consulted following receipt of amended plans detailing two additional doors (serving a sub-station) in the Bath Street elevation of the garages.

(Planning application number: P2015/0709/FUL)

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         The planning officer advised that Paragraph 6.2 of the report should refer to six rather than eight wheelchair units.

·         The health centre provision would be relocated at two centres, one near the Whittington Hospital and the other in Camden.

·         The flexible retail space was for A1 or A2 use.

·         The applicant had designed measures to address crime and anti-social behaviour. The plans encouraged permeability through the estate which was in line with policy. Soft close, non lockable gates were proposed to gain access to the garden area.

·         A member raised concern about whether the North/South routes across the site were desire lines. The planning officer advised that the applicant had undertaken an exercise to look at desire lines across the site. He also advised that there was a bus stop by own of the routes and TfL had stated that this bus stop could not be moved. The member referred to another estate in the borough where measures were now being put in place to reduce permeability as anti-social behaviour was a problem when the estate was more permeable.

·         Although the proposed development would result in the loss of trees, overall there would be a net increase of 49 trees, more amenity space and green space plus a larger community centre.

·         The Chair advised that the committee had to consider whether the application was  consistent with policy, consider the application before the committee and undertake a balancing exercise as there had been a number of objections and the rights of future residents also had to be considered. The scheme would provide homes for people on the housing waiting list.

·         A member stated that the security concerns of residents were appreciated. However a number of mitigating measures had been designed into the scheme and time should be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 133.