Agenda item

Strood Rural 

Restoration of existing building including demolition of wing extensions at ground floor level and single storey outbuildings and conversion to a 4 -bedroomed dwelling and construction of a terrace of three 2-bedroomed dwellings with associated landscaping and parking.

Discussion:

The Head of Planning outlined the planning application and reminded the Committee that this application had originally been considered on 10 May 2017, following which consideration of the application had been deferred to enable officers to obtain further information on possible ways forward for the community and the implications, should the Committee refuse to grant planning permission on the basis that the property has been listed on the Asset of Community Value (ACV) register.

The Head of Planning advised that since despatch of the agenda, further representations had been received, details of which were summarised on and appended to the supplementary agenda advice sheet. The Head of Planning advised that the appeal decision referred to by one of the objectors had been included within the representations section of the report and in the officer’s appraisal.

The Head of Planning also drew attention to a recent appeal decision concerning The Maypole Inn in Dudley which was appended to the supplementary agenda advice sheet and should be considered along with the other appeal decisions referred to.

In addition, he referred to one of the objectors concerns that the comments of Historic England had been misquoted in the report and he confirmed that the wording attributed to Historic England in the representations section of the report had been quoted exactly as stated in their correspondence.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the legal advice set out on pages 78 and 79 of the agenda in response to the Committee’s concerns. This confirmed that the inclusion of the property on the ACV register was a material planning consideration.

Attention was also drawn to a correction on pages 67 and 69 of the report in that the property had not been sold at auction.

The Head of Planning advised that the loss of the community asset was considered acceptable in this location due to the fact that there were other public houses within close proximity and because the Royal Oak did not provide anything different to other public houses in the area. Therefore, should the planning application be refused on the basis of the ACV registration, this was unlikely to be upheld at appeal. Whilst some appeals against refusal had been upheld for this reason this had generally been where the loss involved a unique offer that could not be found elsewhere within the community.

With regard to the viability of the Royal Oak should it to revert to a public house, it was pointed out that in the appeal case concerning Maplewell Inns, the Planning Inspector had decided that whether or not the public house was viable in the long term was not a key factor given the loss of the facility would not cause significant harm to local services.

The Committee discussed the application in the light of the information supplied.

Decision:

Approved subject to:

a)            A Section 106 agreement under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 being entered into to secure:

i)          The development is to be dealt with in phases and the first occupation of the respective dwellings can only take place once the works on that phase have been completed in accordance with the planning permission and the works carried out in accordance with the schedules of works set out in the Heritage statement prepared by Asset Heritage Consulting dated December 2016 submitted with the listed building and planning applications received on 18/01/2017 and drawings received 15/20/32, 15/20/31 Rev B, and 15/20/30 Rev A in respect of the Royal Oak’s conversion to a four bed dwelling house and erection of a terrace of 3 two bed dwelling houses.

            ii)         Phase 1 must be completed before any occupation of the new                     terrace of 3 dwelling houses.

            iii)        The Phases are as follows:

                        Phase 1

Demolition of the ground floor extensions to the sides and rear of the Royal Oak building.  Restoration of the internal and external aspects of the Royal Oak.  Conversion of the Royal Oak to a 4 bedroom dwelling house (Drawing 15/20/32). No occupation of the Royal Oak as a dwelling house until such time that all the conversion, restoration and repair works have been completed.

                        Phase 2

Erection of a terrace of three 2 bedroom houses (drawings 15/20/30 Rev A and 15/20 31 Rev B) No occupation of terrace of 3 houses shall take place until such time as the works in Phase 1 have been completed.

iv)        The Second Schedule shall set out a full method statement for the repair and restoration for the Royal Oak.

v)         A management plan should be set out to ensure the long term maintenance and repair of the communal areas of the listed building comprising shared boundaries and car parking areas.

vi)        To secure contribution of £223.58 per new dwelling created towards Designated Habitats Mitigation.

b)            Conditions 1 – 19 as set out in the report for the reasons stated in the report.