Agenda item

            Y/103/18/PL – Single Chapel Crematorium with car parking, landscape works, surface water drainage features & associated highway improvements.  This application is a Departure from the Development Plan, 10 Acre Field, North of Grevatts Lane, Yapton

            Having received a report on the matter, the Committee had also been circulated at the meeting with the officer’s written report update which advised Members of the following:-

·         Agricultural Land - the details of the applicant’s submitted Soil Resource Survey and a Soil Resource (Management) Plan had now been received.  Yapton Parish Council had been consulted on these additional documents and had until 13 August 2019 to provide a response.  A new condition would be included in any approval, as set out in the officer report update.

·         Access Arrangements – the applicant had been requested to consider amendments to the access in order to (1) guide visitors to the A259 rather than turning right towards Bilsham Road; and (2) amending the junction of Grevatts Lane West with the A259 in order to deter/prevent right turns onto the A259.  The detail of the outcome of liaison with County Highways was provided in the update, together with amendment of Condition 17 to take account of changed Drawing 128.001.007 Revision D “Access Road Amendments to show the addition of both signage and road lining to discourage a right turn when exiting the site onto Grevatts Lane West.

·         Traffic Regulation Order(TRO) – legal advice had been provided that, as the TRO would be subject to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, it could not be achieved through a planning condition and therefore must be subject to a S106 Agreement.

·         Additional objections were detailed and officer comment made that the majority of the objections referred to matters already discussed within the report or matters were outweighed by the lack of an objection from County Highways.

·         Clarification was provided that the recommendation should delegate the approval of planning permission, subject to the S106 Agreement and the recommended conditions (as amended) to the Group Head of Planning, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

The Principal Planner presented this report on the detail of an application for a single chapel crematorium and advised that, although there was a conflict with the Local Development Plan, there was a clear need for such a facility and it would provide long term benefits.

In debating the matter, Members expressed serious concerns with regard to access to and from the site; access onto the A259; and the safety of cyclists using the cycle route along the A259.  It was acknowledged that there was a need for a crematorium but that did not override the fact that Members were of the view that the access arrangements were unsatisfactory and that an additional junction onto the A259 was totally unsuitable.  A view was expressed that the potential for a slow moving funeral cortege on the A259 could have a severe detrimental impact on the traffic flows in the area.

            In light of the comments made, the Group Head of Planning cautioned the Committee that this application had been subject to a road safety audit undertaken by an independent consultant on behalf of the applicant, which had been assessed by County Highways and, as stated in the report, they did not consider there would be any severe harm to the safety or convenience of the local highway network.

Following this advice, it was formally proposed and duly seconded that the application should be deferred to enable a further road safety assessment of the access onto the A259 to be undertaken on the grounds that the original assessment had been carried out on Friday 28 December 2018 at 9.30 a.m. and again on 2 January 2019 when the traffic flows would have been exceptionally light.  Member comment was also made that the road safety assessment should be subject to 4 separate site visits, two mid-morning and two mid-afternoon.

The Committee therefore

RESOLVED

That the application be deferred to enable a road safety audit to be undertaken.