Agenda item

Twydall

Construction of 14 two-bed four-person (2B4P) residential dwellings facing Eastcourt Lane and ancillary car parking access from Eastcourt Green together with associated works and landscaping.

Discussion:

The Senior Planner outlined the planning application in detail and reminded the Committee that consideration of this application on 5 February 2020 had been deferred to allow further investigation as to the availability of brownfield sites in the area. The applicants had provided a report in response to Members concerns and this was summarised within the agenda report.

With the agreement of the Committee, Councillor Prenter addressed the Committee as Ward Councillor and raised the following issues:

·           The proposal for 14 units in an already congested area would impact local residents, particularly with regard to traffic congestion and parking. Nearby Beechings Way was a heavily used road.

·           The replacement trees would take years to grow to maturity.

·           Alternative sites should be investigated and development should be restricted to existing brownfield sites with green space only being developed as a last resort.

With the agreement of the Committee, Councillor Browne addressed the Committee as Ward Councillor and raised the following issues:

·           Green spaces should be protected as once they are developed they would be lost forever.

·           The Council needs to be more ambitious in tacking the housing crisis and the climate crisis.

·           Alternative brownfield sites which had already been given planning permission were available.

·           This application should be refused on ecological and environmental grounds. 

The Committee discussed the planning application in detail noting the presentation from the Senior Planner and the points raised by the Ward Councillors.

Concern was expressed that the application might be compromising a number of planning policies and it was questioned whether the application would be considered acceptable if it had been submitted by a private developer. In response, the Head of Planning explained why the site was not identified on the proposals map as protected open space but was still covered by Policy L3 of the Local Plan. The Council was considering all options and had discounted a number of sites in Twydall. He confirmed that an application from a private developer would not have been considered sympathetically but the application under consideration was in response to a need for social housing and that was a material planning consideration that the Committee needed to give some weight to.

During Members’ discussion it was suggested that, given the need for 30,000 new homes in Medway, the development of some green space was necessary. Brownfield sites were not always viable for social housing because of the costs of remediation. The Committee had asked the Council’s Housing Team to justify this application and that justification was included in the agenda report. Other sites and options were also being considered but due to the housing need in Medway these were in addition to the proposals being put forward, not as an alternative, and some had been dismissed as unviable due to their limited size. 

Decision:

Approved subject to:

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

i.             £35,721.00 on improvements at Goudhurst Play Area and/or Beechings Way and/or Vinalls Park (£33,934.95) and Great Lines Heritage Park (£1,786.05).

ii.         £8,853.04 towards improvements to Gillingham South locality Primary Care Network.

iii.        £2,422.70 towards provision, maintenance and improvements to local waste centres.

iv.        £3,408.58 towards sports facilities at Splashes consisting of life size training mannequins and St Johns Ambulance Badges.

v.         £1,096.48 towards a Youth Provision programme delivery for young people in the Gillingham area.

vi.        £2,565.36 for community facilities within the vicinity of the site.

     vii.       £62,548.54 for Education consisting of:-

–     Nursery £19,305.72 and Primary £6,769.52 to one or more Thames View Primary, Feathery Infants and juniors.

_     Secondary £36,473.30 to one or more Howard School, Rainham School for Girls, Rainham Mark Grammar School/Robert Napier School.

viii.        £3,437.84 towards strategic measures in respect of the coastal North Kent Special Protection Area.

              ix.    Meeting the Council’s costs.

       x.         £2,312.00 towards facilities and equipment at Twydall Library.

b)  Conditions 1 – 18 as set out in the report for the reasons stated in the report.