Issue - meetings

4 Public Speakers

Councillor Stephen Abbott – Ferring Parish Council

Ed Miller – Objector

Tim Rodway – Agent

Councillor Roger Elkins – Arun District Council Ward Member

Erection of a new single storey building to the front of existing dwelling to be used as guest/visitor accommodation, with car parking and front boundary changes to include acoustic fencing and entrance gates. This site is in CIL Zone (Zero Rated) as other development.

The Planning Area Team Leader presented the report with updates. Members’ attention was drawn to the revised recommendation (in the Report Update on page 17 of the Supplement Pack) that had changed due to an ongoing new round of consultation from granting conditional approval to delegating to the Group Head of Planning in consultation with the Chair the authority to grant approval subject to conditions once the consultation period had expired. This was followed by 4 Public Speakers.

Several Members felt very strongly that this was overdevelopment and had concerns about setting a precedent. Specific points noted were that the proposed building was beyond anything in neighbouring properties and that a commercial building could not be compared to a garage, that it was forward of the building line, that it was inappropriate in its setting and that a 3-metre high fence would blight the street scene.

The Legal Services Manager advised that, now the Council was in a Committee system of governance, what should be a Committee decision could not be delegated to the Chair and, as the consultation process was still ongoing, it would not be proper for the Committee to make a decision without seeing the results of the consultation. Following this advice, a motion to defer was moved but this was not considered an appropriate action and instead the application was holdover to a future meeting of the Committee once the consultation had been completed and the responses evaluated.