Agenda item

Peninsula

Outline application with some matters reserved (appearance and scale) for construction of five dwellings houses with associated estate road, provision of 12 on site car parking spaces, new pavement along the site road frontage and on site reptile habitat and removal of porta cabin to the North - Resubmission of MC/18/1871.

Discussion:

The Head of Planning outlined the application in detail. The application was for outline planning permission with some matters reserved (appearance and scale) for the construction of five dwellings with associated estate road, provision of 12 on site car parking spaces, new pavement along the site road frontage, on-site reptile habitat and the removal of a portacabin.

Referring to the supplementary agenda advice sheet, the Head of Planning advised that the officer recommendation in the report had been amended to delete A iii from the proposed legal agreement and amend proposed condition 19 to include a further restriction. In addition, a letter received from Bloomfields Chartered Town Planners on behalf of the applicant in support of the application had been attached to the supplementary agenda advice sheet.

The Head of Planning advised the Committee that the matters for its consideration at this outline stagecomprised the access, the housing estate layout and the landscaping of the application site with details regarding the appearance and scale being reserved for future consideration. The proposal also included the removal of the cadets’ building from the land to the north which was within the applicant’s ownership but not within the application site.

The Head of Planning reminded Members that an earlier proposal for 6 dwelling units had been refused by the Committee for reasons of their siting within the setting of Grain Fort and obstruction of the line of fire of the Grain batteries which would adversely impact on the setting of the nearby Scheduled Monument. Since that decision, the applicant had further consulted Historic England and had revised the proposal by reducing the number of the dwelling units to 5 and locating them entirely along the site road frontage, away from the field of fire of the Scheduled Monument which was the eastern part of the site.

Historic England had agreed that the revised scheme, incorporating sensitive design changes, would further reduce harm to the monument’s setting to a low level.

With the permission of the Committee, Councillor Sands addressed the Committee was a Ward Councillor. He said that six previous planning applications for this site had been refused. He considered that the reduction in the number of dwellings from six to five would not reduce the harm to this area of the Thames/Medway estuary, close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The proposal for a row of five houses would obliterate the view of grain coastal path from the road and the view of Sea View meadow. If the cadet hut was removed, he questioned what would become of the firing range underneath it.  The site was part of the heritage of Grain; there was an old ammunition store close by and Grain Parish Council had rescued a number artifacts for safe keeping.

Some Members considered that the proposed scheme would not be beneficial to the village. Although the vacant land suffered from the dumping of rubbish, it was considered that this was a front line services issue rather than a planning issue. It was also noted that there were reptiles and protected species on the site. In response to concerns regarding the proposed hours of construction, the Head of Planning referred to proposed condition 17 which would require a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) to be approved by the Local Planning Authority. He advised the Committee that, although latest Government advice allowed construction between the hours of 7am and 9pm, developers had been told that they could only undertake work that was not noisy between 6pm and 9pm.

Decision:

Approved subject to:

a)   The applicant shall enter into a legal agreement with the Council to deliver the following:

i   the existing Army Cadets building together with associated foundation, hard standing, drainage, plumbing and wiring on land marked blue in drawing 1377-P104 Rev B shall be demolished, broken up and the resulting materials removed from the land and the land shall be kept in perpetuity as part of the landscape and wildlife habitat of the development approved under ref MC/20/1973 prior to the first occupation of any of the dwellings in the said development.

ii   Prior to the commencement of the development mentioned in (i) above, the applicant shall submit for approval in writing by the Local Planning Authority a restoration method statement. The method statement shall have regard to the terms and requirements of conditions no 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 21 and 23 of permission under ref MC/20/1973. In addition the method statement shall provide details of any fill materials, integration of the blue land with the designated reptile translocation and habitat land as identified by drawing mention in (i) above, implementation programme, long term management and maintenance of the combined land. The approved restoration method statement shall be implemented in full to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority prior to the occupation of any of the approved dwellings and retained as such for the lifetime of the development.

b)   Conditions 1- 18 and 20 – 23 as set out in the report for the reasons stated in the report.

c)   Amended condition 19 as follows:

19    Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Order) 2015 (as amended) no development within Schedule 2, Part 1, Classes A, AA, B, C, D, E and F shall be carried out without the permission of the Local Planning Authority.

Reason: To enable the Local Planning Authority to control such development in the interests of amenity, in accordance with Policies BNE1 and BNE2 of the Medway Local Plan 2003.