Issue - meetings

We apologise but an error was spotted in the report for this item originally published in the agenda pack. Please note that the report in the supplementary pack corrects this error and supersedes the report published in the agenda pack. It is the report in the supplementary pack that Planning Committee will consider at the meeting on 26 October 2022.

2 Public Speakers

Cllr Tim Hibbert – Climping Parish Council

Brian West – Objector

Retrospective laying of hard surfacing and change of use of land for the parking of vehicles and siting of a storage container with erection of floodlighting. This application is in CIL Zone 2 (zero rated) as other development. This application is a dual parish application with Ford Parish Council.

The Planning Area Team Leader presented the report with updates. He explained the change to the Officer recommendation due to the submission of a Transport Statement by the applicant from conditional approval to delegated authority to approve following the expiry of the publicity period. This was followed by 2 Public Speakers.

Members then took part in a debate on the application where a number of points were raised and responded to by Officers, principally revolving around the harm the lights to be installed on the site might cause and the hours of operation and how these might be policed. Clarification was sought over the exact operational hours, that there was no control under the conditions should people be onsite earlier than those hours and any disruption this might cause to residents. The Interim Head of Development Management explained to Members that outside of operational hours, an element of lighting for security purposes would most likely remain.

Clarity was also sought over condition 1 and whether the permission was only for a year or if the landowner could just apply again annually on a rolling basis. It was explained that this condition intended to give a level of protection to residents and should the change of use be shown to cause unacceptable levels of harm then that would provide possible grounds for refusal of any future application. Concerns over how the levels of harm and disturbance would be determined were raised by Members, to which the Chair made clear that residents had access to an enforcement service which could investigate complaints about noise and disturbance at the site. A lack of biodiversity loss offsetting measures was also flagged, but Officers explained that the financial burden of including such conditions was unreasonable at this stage. The recommendation was then proposed by Councillor Edwards and seconded by Councillor Chace.

The Committee

RESOLVED

To delegate to the Group Head of Planning in consultation with the Chair authority to grant planning permission as detailed in the report and report update subject to conditions as detailed, and following the expiry of the publicity period generated by the receipt of a Transport Statement by the applicant after the publication of the agenda.