Agenda and draft minutes

SWT Planning Committee
Thursday, 2nd March, 2023 1.00 pm

Venue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions

Contact: Tracey Meadows Email: t.meadows@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

115.

Apologies

116.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Planning Committee

117.

Declarations of Interest or Lobbying

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests or lobbying in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr I Aldridge

    All Items

    Williton

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC, Taunton Charter Trustee & Shadow Taunton Town

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr Mrs Hill

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee & Shadow Taunton Town

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr M Lithgow

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Palmer

    All Items

    Minehead

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr R Tully

    All Items

    West Monkton

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr B Weston

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee & Shadow Taunton Town

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr K Wheatley

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr G Wren

    All Items

    SCC & Clerk to Milverton PC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

118.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

     

    We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, but you can also access them on the Somerset West and Taunton webcasting website.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Application No

    Name

    Position

    Stance

    42/22/0062

    Mr T Smith

    Tessa Dean

    Olivia Davis

    Local Resident

    Parish Council

    Boyer Planning

    Against

    Against

    In favour

     

119.

42/22/0062 - Application for the approval of Reserved Matters following Outline Application 42/14/0069 for the appearance, landscaping, layout and scale for the erection of 20 No. dwellings, hard and soft landscaping , car parking including garages, internal access roads, footpaths and circulation areas, public open space and drainage with associated infrastructure and engineering works comprising Parcel H1f(i) on land west of Comeytrowe Lane, Taunton, Orchard Grove, Land at Comeytrowe/Trull, Taunton pdf icon PDF 959 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Comments from members of the public included;

    (summarised)

     

    ·         Concerns that the developers had yet again changed their plans to defer remediation;

    ·         Concerns with contamination on the industrial site;

    ·         Concerns with Asbestos on the estate;

    ·         Concerns regarding possible anthrax contamination at the site;

    ·         Concerns that no contamination Condition was proposed;

    ·         Concerns with the change of the boundary line;

    ·         Road concerns for vehicular access, this was not needed;

    ·         Clarity sought on EV charging points;

    ·         The roads needed to be prioritised for walking and cycling over car usage;

    ·         Residents requested that more trees be put into the application;

    ·         Orchard Grove was first identified for the allocation of 2,000 homes more than a decade ago; and has since been allocated by both the Council’s adopted Core Strategy and its Site Allocations Plan. During this time, the Applicants have committed to working in partnership with the Council to help deliver this important site;

    ·         At 25%, the level of affordable homes to be provided exceeds both the requirements of the S106 agreement and the council’s affordable housing policy, with Vistry and LiveWest committed to helping the Council increase the number of quality affordable homes in Taunton;

    ·         The Applicant scheme comprises high quality, well-designed, energy efficient homes. All homes have allocated parking in accordance with the local parking policy requirements as well as secure cycle storage within sheds or garages. All properties include an EV charging facility and as detailed within the approved Energy Statement, the carbon saving of each dwelling exceeds Building Regulations.

    ·         The landscaping proposed for this parcel includes trees on all streets, hedges and shrubs to provide boundaries, landscaping within parking areas and within rear gardens. The overall comprehensive and high-quality landscape scheme will provide substantial areas of new public open space for future residents to enjoy;

    ·         In addition to the above, the scheme has been designed in accordance with approved outline planning permission; the approved Design Guide for the Urban Extension; and the design policies contained within your Local Plan;

    ·         There are no outstanding technical objections to the Reserved Matter proposal from any of the consultees;

    ·         As was the case for the neighbouring Phases, this application for Phase H1Fi is also supported by a comprehensive and detailed Phosphate Mitigation Strategy for the site, which has been prepared in consultation with SWT, Somerset County and Natural England over several months. The final submitted report has been endorsed by Natural England as a robust strategy, which provides a firm basis for SWT to again reach a conclusion of no adverse effect on the integrity of the protected sites;

     

    Comments made by Members included;

    (summarised)

     

    ·         Contaminated land concerns;

    ·         We need to specify the trees to be planted so that they do not look artificial and were the correct type for the area;

    ·         Higher graded EV charging points need to be installed for a quick charge;

    ·         Pleased that this site has affordable housing funding;

    ·         Concerns how the contamination in the ground will affect future builds on the site;

    ·         Concerns with the lack of solar panels on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 119.

120.

Appeals Decided pdf icon PDF 507 KB

121.

Access to Information - Exclusion of the Press and Public - Agenda item 7

    During discussion of the following item (Agenda Item 7 it may be necessary to pass the following resolution to exclude the press and public having reflected on Article 12A  (a presumption in favour of openness) of the Constitution. This decision may be required because consideration of this matter in public may disclose information falling within one of the descriptions of exempt information in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972. Executive will need to decide whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption, outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

     

    Recommend that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the next item of business (Agenda Item 7 on the ground that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 respectively of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Resolved that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the next item of business (Agenda Item 8 on the ground that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as

    defined in paragraph 3 respectively of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

     

     

     

     

122.

Enforcement Report

    Minutes:

    Enforcement case ref ECC/EN/22/00077 - Statutory Action APPROVED as per Officer recommendation.

     

    RECOMMENDATION

     

    1.To grant delegated authority to Officers to serve relevant statutory planning and listed building notices, to include notices pursuant to:

     

    (a) S215 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Amenity Orders);

    (b) S54 Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservations Areas) Act 1990 (Urgent Works Notices);

    (c) S172 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Enforcement Notice);

    (d )S38 (Listed Buildings and Conservations Areas) Act 1990 (Listed Building Enforcement Notice); and/or

    (e) S48 Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservations Areas) Act 1990 (Repairs Notices)

     

    To secure the Listed Building as appropriate.

     

    2.To authorise Officers to interview the owners/agents under the PACE code to decide if a prosecution for unauthorised works to the listed building is necessary in the public interest (Section 9 Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservations Areas) Act 1990;