Agenda and minutes

Councillor Klute welcomed everyone to the meeting. Members of the Committee and officers introduced themselves.

Apologies were received from Councillors Cinko-Oner and Spall.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

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 19 March 2024 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

Meeting was advised that at the meeting of Annual Council on 16 May 2024 membership of the Planning Committee was agreed.

Chair informed the meeting that Vice Chair of the Planning Sub Committee’s be appointed by the respective bodies.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the Sub-Committees be confirmed as five member Sub-Committees and that the terms of reference be noted.

b)    That the allocation of seats was determined in accordance with the advice in the report.

c)     That Councillors North, Convery, Cinko-Oner, Steadman and Ogunro be appointed as members of Planning Sub-Committee A for the current municipal year or until their successors are appointed.

d)    That Councillors Hayes, Clarke, Klute, Spall and Hamdache be appointed as members of Planning Sub-Committee B for the current municipal year or until their successors are appointed.

e)    That it be noted that Councillor North had been appointed Chair of Planning Sub-Committee A and Councillor Hayes had been appointed Chair of Planning Sub-Committee B for the municipal year or until their successors are appointed.

f)      That it be noted that any member who was a member or substitute member of the Planning Committee could substitute at any meetings of either Sub-Committee if they had not been appointed as a member of the Sub-Committee.

Demolition of the existing building and erection of a 4-storey office (Use class Eg(i)) building, including cycle associated cycle parking, waste and recycling storage, plan enclosure to the roof, hard and soft landscaping, and associated substation

(Planning application number: P2023/2059/FUL)

In the discussion the following points were made:

·       Chair reminded Committee that application has already been appealed for non-determination by the applicant, so the Council will have to defend its position, noting that officers have advised in the report that in its present state it would be advising Committee that the application be refused .

·       In addition to the above, members would need to consider the 9 reasons for refusal provided by officers.

·       Panning Officer informed meeting that since agenda was published an addendum has been published which clarifies a number of issues in the committee report, revisions to the reasons for refusal and some typographical errors.

·       Site is located on the south side of Margery Street and comprises a two-storey office building, presently vacant with measures in place to prevent squatters and accessibility, previously occupied by the Children’s Society, with approximately 2,543sqm of office floorspace and a servicing yard accessed from Margery Street. The site is predominantly surrounded by residential accommodation at Margery Street, Yardley Street, Wilmington Square and Attneave Street.

·       In terms of background and history, meeting was advised that a previous application on the site was submitted to the council and refused by Planning Committee in July 2020. It was refused on the 4 grounds of design and appearance, impact on neighbouring heritage assets, grade 2 listed buildings and neighbouring conservation areas, impact on neighbouring amenity specifically to daylight transgressions, loss of outlook and a sense of enclosure.

·       The refusal was appealed by the applicant and subsequently dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate in March 2022 on grounds that the main issues to the proposed scheme had not been addressed, on whether or not the proposed development would preserve the settings of nearby listed buildings with particular regard to Nos. 21-23 Yardley Street and 25-37 and 38-39 Wilmington Square; whether or not the development would conserve the setting of the New River Conservation Area; the effect of the design of the proposed development on the character and appearance of the streetscene; the effect on the living conditions of the occupiers of neighbouring properties having regard to daylight and outlook and whether the benefits of the proposed development as well as the any other relevant natters would outweigh the harm in determining the planning balance .

·       Members were informed that the Planning Inspectorate in conclusion stated that that although it had not found that the heritage harms were sufficient to outweigh the benefits on their own, it would still form part of the planning balance, that the harms to the street scene, the living conditions of the nearby occupiers when added to the planning balance, the cumulative weight of harms does outweigh the benefits which would arise from the scheme.

·       Key planning considerations highlighted by the Planning officer included  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120.