Agenda item

Rainham North

Construction of 18 no. 3-bedroom dwellings  with access works, associated parking and landscaping.

Discussion:

The Head of Planning reminded the Committee that this application had previously been considered by the Committee on 13 February 2019 following which the Committee noted that the land along the north and north eastern parts of the site were at risk of surface water flooding. The Committee therefore considered that the drainage concerns needed to be addressed before planning permission could be granted for the full scheme. It was considered that if the drainage issues could not be easily resolved, the applicant may wish to consider submitting a revised scheme for those properties unaffected by potential flooding.

The Head of Planning advised that, in acknowledging Members concerns, the applicant had submitted a revised planning application reducing the number of dwellings from 27 to 18 and deleting the 9 houses that were to be located within the at risk flooding area.

As a result of the reduction in the number of dwellings now proposed, this part of the development would not pass the threshold of Policy H3 to provide affordable units. However, should the applicant or his successor manage to resolve the flooding issue and submit an application for the residential development of the land along the northern part of the application site, then the aggregate number of dwellings on the whole site could reach 25 or more. The applicant had acknowledged this and agreed to provide the required affordable units in the next phase of the development if and when such application was submitted and approved by the Local Planning Authority.

A reduction in the number of dwellings to 18 units would also result in lower s106 developer’s contributions. However, as with the affordable housing proposals, the applicant had agreed to make pro rata developer contributions for the additional units on the land along the northern part of the site if and when such an application was submitted and approved by the Local Planning Authority.

To secure the above, it was recommended that a clawback mechanism clause be added to the legal agreement to ensure delivery of the affordable housing and developer contributions for the whole site should the applicant or his successor submit an application(s) for the development of the land along the north boundary of the site and permission for such an application(s) is granted.

The Head of Planning referred to the proposed new condition 28 set out on the supplementary agenda advice sheet and informed the Committee that this additional condition should be disregarded.

Decision: 

Approved subject to:

a)            A Section 106 Agreement under the terms of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 being entered into to secure the following developer’s contributions:

i)          A contribution of £16,473.60 towards nursery school provision for one or more of Riverside Primary School, St Thomas of Canterbury, Thamesview Primary, or Mierscourt Primary School.  The funding will be utilised at the appropriate school from the list at the time of receipt of the contribution.

ii)         A contribution of £40,435.20 towards primary school provision for one or more of Riverside Primary School (2 to 3 FE) and/or St Thomas of Canterbury (1 to 2FE and/or Thamesview Primary (2 to 3FE) or Mierscourt Primary School (2 to 3FE).  The funding will be utilised at the appropriate school from the list at the time of receipt of the contribution.

iii)        A contribution of £32,722.56 towards secondary school facilities in the Rainham Mark Grammar School class bases and/or a new free school in the area.

iv)        A contribution of £ 44,815.14 to improve provision at Cozenton Park and to Great Lines Heritage Park to enhance open space facilities.

v)         A contribution of £1,051.79 towards provision of Youth Services to offer personal and social development opportunities for young people in Rainham area.

vi)        A contribution of £8,423.10 towards the improvement of Red Suite Rainham Healthy Living Centre.

vii)       A contribution of £3,007.00 towards offsetting the increase in footfall impact on the Public Rights of Way GB8 which provides a direct link into a very popular part of the regional trail ‘The Saxon Shore Way’.

viii)      A contribution of £2,814.33 towards Waste and recycling to provide household containers for the collection of Recycling – use once bags and 240ltr wheeled brown bins to each property for the collection of food and garden waste.

ix)        A contribution of £4,314.78 towards bird mitigation measures.

x)         If the adjacent land initially shown for 9 dwellings comes forward for development the applicant agrees to provide 25% affordable housing as a percentage of the total development of the original site area and to make developer contributions in relation to the uplift in the number of units.

b)     Conditions 1 – 27 as set out in the report for the reasons stated in the report.