Agenda and minutes

Up to 15 minutes are allowed for public participation.  Participants are restricted to 3 minutes each.

Mr Colin Cotter addressed the Committee on the subject of the West Lindsey District Council website, and the way the application documents are presented.

Planning documents were difficult to read on different electronic devices, and documents are displayed in no discernible order.

The Planning and Development Manager responded to the comments, answering that the issue of the order of the documents has been raised previously, but the Planning department were not in control of the corporate software in place.   The department was going through an exercise to review the customer care programme, which would include documents being displayed in a more user friendly manner.

IDOX software for document management was now available and should assist with these problems in the future.

Councillor David Cotton raised that the agenda pack did include all observations without having to go through the website.

i)       Meeting of the Planning Committee held on 18 October 2017.

Meeting of the Planning Committee held on 18 October 2017.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 18 October be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Members may make any declarations of interest at this point but may also make them at any time during the course of the meeting.

Councillor Ian Fleetwood declared that he had received two letters from a Mr J Summers (no relation to the Leader) on application 136274.  All Members of the Planning Committee had received these letters.

In addition to these letters, Councillor David Cotton had also received two emails.

Councillor Jessie Milne declared that she had organised meetings with Sir Edward Leigh MP but had not participated in those meetings on application 136274.

Councillor Jessie Milne also declared an interest in application 136636 as the applicant was a fellow Councillor.  The Chairman confirmed that this interest applied to all members of the Committee.

Note: Councillor Thomas Smith arrived at 18:38.

Note – the status of Neighbourhood Plans in the District may be found via this link

https://www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/my-services/planning-and-building/neighbourhood-planning/

The Planning and Development Manager updated the Committee on the following issues:

·         The Community Infrastructure Levy had been formally adopted at Full Council earlier in the week.  Thanks were given to Members for their support, as well as Rachael Hughes who has led on this issue.  Guidance was being added to the website, training was being coordinated, and applicants are being made aware of the Levy;

·         The Brattleby Neighbourhood Plan went to Full Council earlier this week and was approved.  The Neighbourhood Plans for Lea and Scotter have referendums booked for 7 December;

·         The Planning department have continued to send out regular update bulletins to Members on the prominent changes in Neighbourhood Planning;

·          The revision of the five year supply for central Lincolnshire required a review of all sites with existing planning permissions in place.  West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) have completed their work on this and have submitted to the Central Lincolnshire team;

·         The delivery of the allocated sites continued.  Gainsborough northern neighbourhood was coming forward with a planning application now received;

Note:  Councillor David Cotton and Councillor Ian Fleetwood declared a personal interest in the Community Infrastructure Levy as members of the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee.

The Chairman introduced a planning application for proposed new poultry rearing units and associated works.

The Principal Development Management Officer gave an update to the Committee on the application as there were some matters that had happened after the publication of the agenda.  WLDC had been contacted by the National Planning Casework Unit on behalf of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.  The Secretary of State did not intend to take any action if the Committee were minded to refuse planning permission, but if they had been minded to approve the application, the Secretary of State would wish to consider whether to call the application in using a call-in policy.

There had been a further comment from a third party, a representative from Cornwall concerning the ammonia emissions from poultry farms.  The third party put forward that poultry farms were responsible for 14% of the UK’s total ammonia emissions.

The Applicant had not registered to speak at the Committee, but had given a precis (through their Agent) to the Planning department.  The following points were highlighted:

·         The Agent claimed there had been ample time for WLDC to request further information;

·         In their view Regulation 25 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations required the Local Planning Authority to request further information if they don’t think a reasoned conclusion can be made.  In their view there was no time limit on how many times this could occur;

·         In relation to Regulation 25, no decision can be made within 30 days of receiving further information.

The Principal Development Management Officer then responded to these queries:

·         A formal request for further information was made to the Applicant in July, as contained in the committee papers.  Further information was received in September and the statutory 30 day consultation period undertaken.  It was not open for this 30 day period to be cyclical for an indeterminate period, the Council has a statutory time limit by which to determine the planning application;

·         In October, WLDC requested further clarity on certain points, but this was not a formal request under Regulation 25. The letter did not purport such, and the additional information submitted by the Applicant was not under the banner of Regulation 25.

Following this information, the Chairman invited registered speakers to talk on the application.  First was Christopher Drinkall, a partner from Rollits who was the first of two speakers from the Glentham Action Group who were opposing the application.  He highlighted the following points:

·         The applicant had failed to provide sufficient information in their environmental statement which would have permitted a proper analysis of the applications compliance, or otherwise with Local Planning Policies, namely LPs 9, 14, 16, 17, 21 and 26;

·         Full compliance with the above policies would have been a bare minimum for the application, and these had not been addressed.  Only then could other policies, such as LP55 be tackled;

·         The application was also contrary to LP 25; it did not provide an appropriate description or assessment of any  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

Note:  The meeting reconvened at 1916.

The Committee considered a Planning application to erect a detached single-storey flat roof building to be used as a bus shelter and sanitary accommodation.

There was no update for this application and no speakers.

Officers confirmed that this application had been brought in front of the Committee as it related to a Councillor. Had this application not involved a Councillor, it would have been decided under the scheme of delegations.

The application was proposed, seconded and voted upon and approved unanimously.

It was therefore AGREED that the application be GRANTED, subject to conditions:

Conditions stating the time by which the development must be commenced:

1. The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of

three years from the date of this permission.

Reason: To conform with Section 91 (1) of the Town and Country Planning

Act 1990 (as amended).

Conditions which apply or require matters to be agreed before the

development commenced:

None.

Conditions which apply or are to be observed during the course of the

development:

2. With the exception of the detailed matters referred to by the conditions of

this consent, the development hereby approved shall be carried out in

accordance with the following drawings: ARQ/1149/01 dated 03 August 2017.

The works shall be carried out in accordance with the details shown on the

approved plans and in any other approved documents forming part of the

application.

Reason: To ensure the development proceeds in accordance with the

approved plans and to accord with the National Planning Policy Framework

and Policy LP26 of the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.

3. The development permitted by this planning permission shall be carried out

in accordance with the approved Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) prepared by

ARQ Design revised October 2017 and the following mitigation measures

detailed within the FRA:

The flood resilience measures specified in section 6 of the FRA shall be

implemented and the mitigation measures shall be fully implemented prior to

first being brought into use and retained thereafter.

Reason

To ensure that the development is resilient to flooding at set out in Paragraph

59 of the National Planning Policy Framework and in accordance with LP14 of

the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.

Conditions which apply or relate to matters which are to be observed

following completion of the development:

None.

RESOLVED that the determination of appeals be noted.