Planning & Development Committee 14 March 2008

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

A meeting of the Planning and Development Committee was held on 14 March 2008.

PRESENT: Councillor McPartland (Chair), Councillors Clark, Lowes, McIntyre, Purvis and Whatley.

OFFICIALS: A Bolton, V Flynn, B Roberts and E Vickers.

**DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Name of Councillor / Type of Interest / Item of Interest
Councillor McIntyre
Councillor Purvis / Prejudicial
Personal /

M/FP/0189/08/P

M/GRG/0187/08/P

**APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were submitted on behalf of Councillors Bloundele, Brunton, Ferrier, Khan and Mrs B Thompson.

**MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Planning and Development Committee held 22 February 2008 were taken as read and approved as a true record.

MR GARY ASHURST

The Chair of the Planning and Development Committee informed the meeting of the recent and untimely death of Mr Gary Ashurst, who had worked as a Planning Officer with the Council for 25 years. Mr Ashurst had been a valuable and helpful member of the Planning section and his presence would be greatly missed, not only by his colleagues, but also by other officers and councillors who had worked with him in the past. The Chair and the members of the Planning and Development Committee wished to record this tribute and offered their sincere condolences to Gary’s family.

Noted

plans

The Head of Planning and Regeneration Programme submitted plans deposited as applications to develop land under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Head of Development Control reported thereon.

ORDERED that the following applications be determined as shown:

M/FP/0153/08/P – Change of use from employment office to A5 hot food takeaway with alterations to external elevation at 101 Acklam Road for Mr S Babul

Deferred.

**DECLARATION OF INTEREST – Councillor McIntyre declared a Prejudicial Interest in the following item, on the grounds that she had expressed an opinion on this application prior to its presentation at committee. Councillor McIntyre made representations to committee then left the meeting until the committee had reached its decision.

M/FP/0189/08/P – Change of use from retail (A1) to hot food take away (A5) at 369 Linthorpe Road for Kuldip Singh

Details of the plan status and planning history were outlined in the report.

Members were advised that the property was the two storey terrace unit towards the southern end of Linthorpe Road the premises being currently vacant having previously been a newsagent.

Neighbourhood consultations had taken place and objections received from the occupiers of nos. 367 Linthorpe Road, 359 and 355 Linthorpe Road; the details of their objection were included in the report. Park Ward Community Council had been consulted and had concerns that there were too many fast food outlets in the area, they would prefer another use for the shop rather than a fast food outlet, residents struggle with the long term parking of non-residential cars, and another fast food outlet would limit diversity of shops in the area. Comments received from Community Protection, Transport and Design and Neighbourhood and Area Care Services were included in the report. A ward Councillor, Councillor Francis McIntyre commented on the planning application and expressed concerns for the opening hours, the litter produced and the use of shutters for the shop. Following these comments, the applicant responded by confirming that they were willing to open the shutters from the early morning to prevent a closed look to the shop and the applicant was prepared to supply waste bins which would be located outside the shop. The applicant also confirmed that the shop would close at midnight, which complied with the conditions suggested by the Environmental Health Service.

The applicant had conducted a personal consultation exercise and accumulated some comments from the local residents/occupiers who supported the application and details of the 16 signatures collected were included in the report.

A detailed analysis of the application was also included in the report.

Reasons for Recommendation

The application was satisfactory in that the change of use from retail to hot food take away accorded with the principles of national planning policy (PPS1) and local policy requirements (policies DC1 and CS13 of the Council’s Development Plan).

In particular, the hot food take away was located within an area identified in the Council’s Local Development Plan as medium to small local centre purposes and as such the hot food take away would be consistent with the use of the surrounding area. The use would not be detrimental to the character of the area or amenity of surrounding properties, nor would the traffic generation, car parking or noise associated with the use be of a level likely to result in an unacceptable impact on nearby residents. The use would not affect the function or character of the area and would not have a significant affect on the visual amenity.

The application was therefore considered to be an acceptable form of development, fully in accordance with the relevant policy guidance and there were no material considerations that would indicate that the development should be refused.

As Ward Councillor, Councillor McIntyre addressed the committee and proposed that an additional condition be added to ensure that the shutters remained opened during the day time, to ensure that the premises looked occupied and in use, rather that present a shuttered façade. (Councillor McIntyre then left the room).

The applicant was present and also elected to address the committee.

Approved on condition that (i) details of ventilation and fume extraction system, suitable for all hot food takeaway uses within Class A3, including a full technical specification by a suitable qualified technical person specifying the position of ventilation, fume or flue outlet points, details of noise levels generated and any noise attenuation structures to be incorporated; the type of filtration including any odour abatement, to be installed and used at the premises in pursuance of this permission, shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority before the use commences. The ventilation and extraction system shall be operated and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations including the frequency of replacement filters. (ii) Before any fixed plant and machinery including refrigeration and air conditioning equipment is used on the premises, it shall be enclosed with sound insulating material and mounted in a way which will minimise transmission of air borne and structure borne sound, in accordance with a scheme to be approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. (iii) all party walls and floors between the proposed dwelling and retail unit shall be insulated against the transmission of airborne and impact sound to a standard equivalent to that contained in section E of the Building Regulations 2000 (as amended); (iv) following confirmation during discussions with the applicant, opening hours would be restricted to 4 p.m. to 12 midnight daily. (v) the drainage system to the premises shall be provided with suitable grease trap so as to prevent the discharge of grease into the public sewer before the use hereby approved commences (vi) details of the type and location of the public waste bin for the front of the hot food take away during working hours will be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. After approval from the local planning authority and the receipt of the relevant highways licence, such a scheme shall then be incorporated in the development hereby permitted and therefore retained in full accordance with the approved details; (vii) the premises shall be fitted with security shutters which shall be the subject of a scheme/details and finish to be submitted to the Local Planning Authority before development and such a scheme as may be approved shall be implemented before the use hereby approved commences. The shutters shall be kept open throughout the ordinary shopping day, from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 midnight. (Reasons as detailed in the report).

M/FP/0229/08/P – Variation of opening hours to allow 12.00 noon to 1.00 a.m. Monday to Sunday at 337 Linthorpe Road for Central Park

Deferred at the request of the Ward Councillor, Councillor McIntyre.

M/FP/0018/08/P – Additional retail units (12,253 m2), alterations to elevations and mall entrances, additional parking and alterations to accesses at the Parkway Shopping Centre and site of Dalby House, Dalby Way, Coulby Newham for P B N Holdings Ltd.

Details of the plan status and planning history were outlined in the report. Members were advised that this application also sought to amend the appearance of the Parkway Centre as well as increase its size.

Full details of the proposed developments were included in the report, along with details of supporting statements, including a Planning Statement, including a Retail Assessment, a Design and Access Statement, Transport Statement and Statement of Community Involvement.

As part of the consultations and publicity exercise, neighbouring residents and business that had been notified of these proposals by letter, as had the Ward Councillors and the Local Community Council. The stipulated period for these representations expired on 30 January 2008. The application has also been advertised in the local press and by site notice as a major development in accordance with Circular 15/92, which finally expired on 27 February 2008. Two responses to this formal process were received within the stipulated periods and a further response of the applicant previous community engaged in this exercise was also received during this formal consultation process. Full details of these responses were included in the report. Comments received from Transportation, Estates and Valuation, Streetscene Services, Community Safety Advisor, Redcar and Cleveland Council, Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit, North East Assembly and One North East were included in the report.

Reference was made to an objection on the grounds that there was a greater increase in shopping floor space, percentage-wise than there was in car parking. Members were advised that additional shopping floor space did not equate to a greater demand for car parking as the same shoppers used the extended facilities and, as there were more shops available, did not have to leave for an alternative shopping centre.

Members were presented with an addendum report which addressed the objections from neighbouring businesses, particularly Shuttleworth, Picknett and Associates, based in Dalby Way, who had objected to the proposals for the remodelling of the service yard on the southern side of the existing shopping centre and the accesses to it, as this would remove the two-way access to and from their offices. The applicant had agreed to submit amended plans that would omit the service access to the east of Birchwood House and retain a two-way stretch of road adjacent to their offices. Responses regarding other consul tees and other design matters were included in this addendum report. Also three additional conditions were recommended, should the application be approved.

A full and detailed planning assessment was also included in the report and reference was made to the approved development plan policy framework, policy CS4 regarding sustainable developments, core strategy policy DC1 on general development, principles of the proposed development, the approved development plan, the emerging LDF policy, the assessment of need, the site selection and assessment of impact, the scale and design, transportation matters, other environmental issues and conclusions were all included in the report.

Members were also advised that, as this proposal was a departure from the Middlesbrough Development Plan, the application would have to be submitted to the Secretary of State, Government Office North East, for approval.

Reasons for Recommendation

The proposed development was considered to be appropriate for both the application site itself and within the surrounding area in that the proposal was in accordance with National, Regional and Local Planning Policies, Statements and Guidance. The relevant Policies Statements and Guidance were contained within the following documents:

·  Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1) – Deliverance of Sustainable Development

·  Planning Policy Statement 6 (PP6) – Planning for Town Centres

·  Planning Policy Guidance not 13 (PPG13) – Transport

·  Middlesbrough Local Development framework - Core Strategy, approved February 2008 (policies as listed above)

·  Middlesbrough Local Plan (1999) – Polices as listed in paragraph 2 of the report.

In particular the proposal met the national planning policy statements and guidance, and the local plan policies regarding the efficient use of land, retail development in town centres, the appropriate design and layout of development, sustainable development, and accessibility that would result in the development that will be in keeping with the scale and character of the surrounding townscape, and would not be detrimental to the local amenities of the surrounding area.

Issues of the principle of the proposed retail development, the impacts of the proposed scale and design, the highways implications of the proposal, and of the local amenity had been fully considered and were not considered to give rise to any inappropriate or undue affects. Accordingly, the Local Planning Authority considered that there were no material planning considerations that would override the general assumption that the development be approved unless other material factors determine otherwise.

The agent was present and elected to address the committee.

Approved on condition that (i) the development shall only be carried out using finishing materials of which samples have been submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority prior to commencement of the development (ii) before the use of the development commences, details of

(a)  the proposed additional service access/egress in Dalby Way;

(b)  the proposed closure of the access from Bickley Way;

shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority. Thereafter, the development shall not be brought into use until both works had been implemented in accordance with the approved details (iii) before the first use of the development commences, details of the following work shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority;

(a)  any external lighting of the building and parking area;

(b)  large scale details of the shop fronts and entrances;

(c)  details of the proposed shop front security measures.

Thereafter, the development shall not be occupied until these schemes have been implemented in accordance with the approved details. (iv) before the use of the development commences, details of the proposed hours of use, including hours of deliveries/collections, shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority. Thereafter, the development shall be carried out in accordance with the approved hours. (v) a scheme for the storage and removal of refuse from the site shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority before the use of the development hereby approved commences. Thereafter, the development shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details (vi) before any fixed plant and machinery including refrigeration and air conditioning equipment is used on the premises, it shall be enclosed with sound insulating material and mounted in a way which will minimise transmission of air borne and structure borne sound, in accordance with a scheme to be approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. (vii) Before the first use of the development, details of the siting and provision of covered and secure cycle parking facilities shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority. Thereafter, this scheme shall be implemented in accordance with the approved details. (viii) before development commences, a plan showing the location of temporary car parking for use during construction shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority and implemented upon commencement of the development. Thereafter, such car parking to be removed on completion of works. (ix) No development shall take place until full details of both hard and soft landscape works have been submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority and these works shall be carried out as approved. These details shall include proposed finished levels or contours, means of enclosure, car parking layouts, other vehicle and pedestrian access and circulation areas, hard surfacing materials, minor artefacts and structures (e.g.; furniture, play equipment, refuse or other storage units, signs, lighting etc.), proposed and existing functional services above and below ground (e.g.; drainage power, communications cables, pipelines etc. indicating lines, manholes, supports etc.), retained historic landscape features and proposals for restoration, where relevant;