Issue - meetings

That officers make an application to the Secretary of State under Regulation 7 of the Town and Country Planning (control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 for a Direction that deemed consent shall not apply for the display of Estate Agent Boards within the Chichester Conservation Area for a period of ten years.

Mrs Archer presented the item to Members.  The Agenda Update Sheet provided two corrections regarding the dates of the relevant legislation.

Mrs Archer responded to Members’ comments and questions:

Mrs Archer confirmed that the reasoning for seeking agreement to the recommendation in the report was in part due to the number of students lets and explained that this matter was under Regulation 7 of the Town and Country Planning (control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations, and an application would therefore not be a planning application.  The report proposed that within the Chichester Conservation Area an application for permission to display signage would be required.  Mrs Archer also commented that other marketing methods were available.

Mrs Archer advised that if this was to apply to Midhurst Conservation Area, further work would be required with South Downs National Park, and confirmed that she would discuss this with the authority at her next meeting with them.  Mrs Archer also confirmed that further matters relating to the boarding-up of premises was also being considered, but this was part of separate legislation. 

With regards to the number of signs displayed for a single premises and the condition of the signage, Mrs Archer responded that a separate application would be required for each sign, which must be clean and safely displayed.  Each application would cost £132.  On the suggestion of the use of QR bar codes, Mrs Archer agreed that may be an idea which could be considered by the Business Improvement District group.  Mrs Archer was unable to provide statistics in relation to the number of student lets.

In a vote Members agreed the recommendation that officers make an application to the Secretary of State under Regulation 7 of the Town and Country Planning (control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 for a Direction that deemed consent shall not apply for the display of Estate Agent Boards within the Chichester Conservation Area of a period of ten years.

Recommendation Agreed.

PERMIT

Mr Harris presented the item to Members, provided a verbal update regarding a change to Condition 3 to reflect a recent revision and drew Members’ attention to the Agenda Update Sheet which included amendments to two conditions relating to approved plans and tree protection.

The Committee received the following speaker:

Rob Collett – Applicant (statement read)

Officers responded to Members’ comments and questions:

With regards to the green space (pocket park) between the parcel and adjacent parcel, Mr Harris explained that the routing of the spine road had already been permitted under phase one, and that re-routing the access to the south of the park would not be possible as it would involve land that was outside of the Phase 1 application site. The path shown along the southern side of the park was a cycleway with the aim of improving facilities for cyclists, and contributing to what was intended to be a pedestrian friendly area. 

On the matter of issues which had occurred with the applicant on sites elsewhere in the District in relation to drainage and lighting problems for existing residents and negative impact on wildlife during construction work, Mr Whitty responded that although this should not be referenced with regards to this application, he was aware of the issues and that developers use different contractors for different sites.  The Council’s enforcement officers were involved in such matters across the whole of the site under discussion and would keep the works in progress under review in relation to any problems which may occur. 

With regards to the comments that Newlands Lane may have been a lost opportunity at outline stage in terms of it not being identified as a cycleway at that stage, Mr Harris responded that he did not consider this to be the case.  In relation to the outline application for phase one, there was unlikely to be a significant volume of cycle traffic and it would not have been justified.  On the matter of future vehicular traffic on Newlands Lane and phase two, Mr Harris advised this had not been shown on part of any approved parameter plan to date, but could be considered in the future if required.  In regards to unauthorised vehicle access where the cycle link emerged onto Newlands Lane, it would cross a deep drainage ditch and therefore this would prevent unauthorised access.  Mr Harris explained that Condition 5 included the requirement of details of the transition between the parcel and Newlands Lane which was likely to require bollards, and an informative could be added with regards to the expectation of such installation.  Mr Harris confirmed that surface water drainage was to be dealt with subsequently under the outline conditions, and therefore the details were not yet known.  Mr Harris added that he understood the location did not drain well due to ground conditions and therefore that a significant proportion of drainage would be directly into the wider network, designed at the outset for this eventuality, although the surface drainage had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27