Planning Committee – 12 November 2004

Chairman: Councillor Wardle
Venue: Council Chamber, Pittwood House, Scunthorpe
Time: At the conclusion of the members’ seminar at approximately 3.30pm

AGENDA

1. Substitutions.

2. Declarations of Personal or Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

3. Draft Development Brief for Falkland Way, Barton-upon-Humber.

The Draft Development Brief can be found on theDevelopment Plans – Action Planning pages.

4. Draft Brigg North Development Brief – Public Consultation.

The Public Consultation Revised Draft – Brigg North 2004 can be found on the Development Plans – Action Planning pages.

5. Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) 13; Wind Energy Development – Public Consultation.

The Wind Energy Development Revised Consultation Draft November 2004 can be found on theDevelopment Plans – Action Planning pages.

6. Conservation Area Appraisal – Barton-upon-Humber.

7. Designation of a Conservation Area – Thornton Curtis.

8. Any other items, which the chairman decides are urgent, by reasons of special circumstances which must be specified.

Note: Reports are by the Head of Planning and Regeneration unless otherwise stated.

Minutes

PRESENT: – Councillor Wardle (in the chair.)

Councillors Long (Vice-Chairman), Bunyan, Clark, England, Fordham, Grant, Kirk, Osborne, and Whiteley.

Councillors Appleyard, Briggs and Ellerby attended the meeting in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 37 (b).

The committee met at Pittwood House, Scunthorpe.

630 DECLARATIONS OF PREJUDICIAL AND NON-PREJUDICIAL PERSONAL INTERESTS – There were no declarations of personal interest.

631 (55) DRAFT DEVELOPMENT BRIEF FOR FALKLAND WAY, BARTON – UPON – HUMBER – The Head of Planning and Regeneration submitted a report seeking approval of a Development Brief for Falkland Way, Barton – upon – Humber.

Falkland Way was located to the east of Barton upon Humber town centre between the built up area and the Kimberley Clark plant. It lay within the defined development limit for town and was to the north of A1077 Barrow Road. The site covered a gross area of 11.7 hectares.

The adopted North Lincolnshire Local Plan established the principle of development on this site. It allocated the site for around 234 new dwellings. This Development Brief had been submitted in support of an application for outline planning permission by Keigar Homes for residential development on part of this site. The Development Brief was required to satisfy policy H4.

The brief outlined the general layout and principles for the development. It showed broad locations for housing and open space and how these would be linked by a new access road, streets, cycleways and footpaths. The brief also set out standards that would be expected for how the site could be developed.

This was a draft version of the brief on which comments from the public and key stakeholders would be invited. It would be revised in the light of comments received and then be approved for development control purposes when determining the planning application

Resolved – (a) That the draft Falkland Way Development Brief be approved for public consultation in November/December 2004, and (b) that the results of the public consultation exercise be reported to a future meeting of this committee.

632 (56) DRAFT BRIGG NORTH DEVELOPMENT BRIEF – PUBLIC CONSULTATION – The Head of Planning and Regeneration submitted a report informing members of the issues raised during the public consultation period for the Draft Brigg North Development Brief and seeking approval for a further public consultation.

Consultation had been carried out between February and April 2004 .The Draft Brief showed where around 300 new homes could be built and where associated open space and community facilities, such as the new primary school, would be sited. It also showed how these would be linked by a new access road, streets, cycleways and footpaths. The brief also set out standards that would be expected for how the site could be developed. The public consultation had attracted 103 representations from 45 groups and individuals.

The public consultation had raised a number of issues from local residents and others regarding the proposals contained in the Draft Brief. These were outlined in the report.

A number of changes were proposed in response to the issues raised. A copy of the amended Draft Brief was appended to the report

The main changes to the Draft Brief were:

  • Reference to the requirement for any future developer to carry out a comprehensive transport assessment of the development and its impacts on the existing road network
  • Deletion of references to the potential provision of shops to serve any future development.
  • Clarification of the role of secondary gateways and their purpose
  • Reference to requirement for developers to liaise closely with utilities and service providers.

It was proposed to re-issue the amended Draft Development Brief for further consultation prior to its final approval.

Resolved – (a) That the amendments to the draft Brigg North Development Brief be endorsed, and (b) that the Brief be the subject of further consultation.

633 (57) SUPPLEMENTARY PLANNING GUIDANCE (SPG) 13: WIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT – PUBLIC CONSULTATION – The Head of Planning and Regeneration submitted a report informing members of the issues raised during the public consultation period for the draft SPG and seeking approval for a further public consultation.

Wind energy was an increasingly important planning issue in North Lincolnshire. The district had attracted high levels of interest for such development. The draft SPG sought to ensure that a planned and co-ordinated approach to wind energy was achieved. Since the publication of the first draft of the guidance, the Government had published Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 22: Renewable Energy. This sought to promote renewable energy and to ensure that future renewable energy targets were met. To achieve this, PPS 22 placed restrictions on the matters that local planning authorities could consider. The proposed changes to the SPG sought to ensure that the Council had robust planning guidance for assessing wind energy proposals within the framework of PPS 22.

Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) 13: Wind Energy Development – Consultation Draft had been issued for public consultation between 26 July and 3 September 2004. The consultation had attracted a total of 215 representations from 40 stakeholders, groups and individuals. The majority of these responses had been broadly supportive of the draft SPG or had sought changes to strengthen the guidance further.

The issues raised and the changes proposed in response were summarised in the report.

It was proposed to re-issue the amended SPG for further consultation.

Resolved – (a) That the amendments to the draft SPG 13 be endorsed, and (b) that the SPG be the subject of further consultation.

634 (58) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE LOCAL PLAN – CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL – BARTON – UPON – HUMBER – The Head of Planning and Regeneration submitted a report inviting the committee to recommend the adoption of Supplementary Planning Guidance for the Barton – upon – Humber Conservation Area. together with amendments to the boundary of the area and the making of an Article 4 Direction to control alterations to properties in the area..

A review of the council’s 17 Conservation Areas had been undertaken by external consultants and completed in May 2002. Draft Supplementary Guidance had been prepared for each area, comprising in each case of an appraisal of the area’s character and planning guidance.

The council had resolved to use the draft documents as interim policy statements for development control purposes.

Consultation had been undertaken in line with that carried out for the local plan.

The consultants undertaking the appraisals had also asked to review the boundaries of all Conservation Areas. They had concluded there was a need to change the boundary for Barton – upon – Humber. The proposed changes were set out in the report.

The appraisal document referred to a cumulative loss of the historic character of buildings within the Conservation Area. In particular alterations to windows, doors roofs and shopfronts. Many of these could already be controlled under existing planning legislation as they largely affected listed buildings, commercial properties or those in mixed uses.

Where unlisted family dwelling houses were concerned however, such changes were normally allowed under permitted development rights. The Council could control such changes by serving an Article 4 Direction. When the Barton-upon-Humber Conservation Area had first been designated an early Article 4 Direction had been served by the former authority and this still stood, affecting a limited number of unlisted family houses in the earlier part of the Conservation Area.

It was therefore suggested that the provisions of Article 4 be applied to the area as a whole, including the proposed extensions. These areas were mainly residential and which would therefore benefit most from this additional control.

Recommended to Council – (a) That, the Conservation Area Appraisal and Supplementary Planning Advice Documents for the Barton – upon – Humber Conservation Area be adopted as Supplementary Planning Advice showing conformity with the provisions of the local plan and; (b) that these documents be used to inform the development process as it affected the Conservation Area and as guidance documents for Town Planning Purposes; (c) that the actions for each Conservation Area as detailed in the Conservation Area Appraisal as summarised in Appendix 2 to the report be noted as contributing toward the positive management of the Conservation Areas concerned;(d) that the Conservation Area boundary for the areas referred to in this report be amended as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report and that (e) some minor works of alteration to residential properties be brought into planning control through the making of Article 4(2) Directions as detailed in Appendix 3 of the report so as to better preserve and enhance the character and appearance of those areas.

635 (59) DESIGNATION OF A CONSERVATION AREA – THORNTON CURTIS – The Head of Planning and Regeneration submitted a report seeking approval to designate a new conservation area at Thornton Curtis in accordance with Local Plan Policy.

Local Planning Authorities were require by the Town Planning legislation to regularly review the character and appearance of their areas. If some part was found to be of special architectural or historic interest, worthy of preservation, then a Conservation Area should be designated.

Special Architectural and Historic interest worthy of preservation had been identified in Thornton Curtis by the former authority. A proposal to designate a Conservation Area was contained in the East Glanford Local Plan (Adoption Draft) 1991.

Policy MR1 of the North Lincolnshire Local Plan committed the Council to keep under review “key policy indicators … and environmental data…” An objective arising from this was to conserve and enhance the environment. The target for this objective was the designation of two new Conservation Areas within the lifetime of the Plan.

As part of the Conservation Area review, consultants had been asked to look at the Thornton Curtis proposal. Their brief had been to assess the special interest, both architectural and historical, of Thornton Curtis, in order to establish whether it warranted designation as a Conservation Area. They had also been asked to comment the boundary of a Conservation Area.

The consultants had found clear evidence of special architectural and historic interest and had had no reservations about recommending that it was desirable to preserve this Their report had identified a number characteristics of special importance which were summarised in the present report.

Having studied the settlement history and assessed the development of the settlement, they had also concluded that a larger area than originally proposed had special interest. Included within the proposed designation therefore, was infilling development and nineteenth century terraced property to the south of the church and the Thornton Hunt.

These findings had formed the basis of a consultation with local residents save that, to afford further protection to the setting of the church; Council bungalows excluded from the area in the consultants’ draft had been included. All properties in the Parish had been consulted. The responses to this and to a separate consultation carried out by the parish council were appended to the report.

From these responses it was clear that most residents of the parish did not wish to see a Conservation Area designated. It was also clear that most of the reasons for this were not expressed in terms of the special architectural and historic interest that had been identified by the consultants.

There was therefore, little by way of substantive objection to the Conservation Area designation raised as a result of the consultation with local residents.

Members, however, were reluctant to designate the area without the support of local people and wished officers to make further attempts to reassure them

Resolved – That consideration of this matter be deferred to enable officers to carry out further consultations.