Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Mutton.

There were none.

The following Councillors attended Planning View on the 21 January 2025:

·         Councillor Frank Allen

·         Councillor Paul Baker

·         Councillor Adrian Bamford

·         Councillor Garth Barnes

·         Councillor Barbara Clark

·         Councillor Jan Foster

·         Councillor Tony Oliver

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 19^th December 2024.

A request from a member of the public to correct the minutes was received and was reviewed by the Monitoring Officer. The requested changes were not recommended to the Committee as council minutes are not intended to be a verbatim record of meetings and recordings are available on YouTube for four years for reference. The Committee agreed not to amend the minutes.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 October were approved and signed as a correct record.

There were none.

Planning Application Documents

The Head of Development Management, Enforcement & Compliance introduced the report as published, highlighting that this was an outline application for up to 60 dwellings including 40% affordable housing and up to 550 square meters of flexible commercial use. He emphasized that appearance, landscaping, layout, and scale were reserved matters. He highlighted that an update sheet had been circulated with amended conditions and that the recommendation was to permit subject to these conditions and a s106 agreement.

There were no public speakers on the item.

In response to Members’ questions, officers confirmed that:

-       It would not be possible to resolve the drainage issue that has existed on North Road West since the BMW site was built through a condition on the current planning application. Cheltenham Borough Council and the County Council have enforcement powers to manage this issue and it will be raised with the Enforcement Team.

-       Controlling routes of construction traffic to prevent contractors’ vehicles using North Road West is within the scope of a construction management plan. This can be dealt with when the application to discharge that condition is submitted.

The matter then went to Member debate where the following points were made:

-       The use of the site as a residential rather than commercial site was seen as a positive development, particularly given the pressure to build more houses as captured within the 5-year housing land supply  particularly given the pressure to build more houses as captured within the 2.52 year housing land supply. The designation of 40% of properties as affordable housing was also highlighted as extremely important.

-       Significant disappointment was expressed at the decision to provide access to the residential properties through North Road West, instead of Corinthian Way. North Road West is a very quiet county lane within the green belt, bound by hedgerows on both sides and is part of a designated national cycle route. In contrast Corinthian Way is a purpose-built two-lane road, designed  to take high volumes of traffic.

-       It was noted that the developers’ had agreed to put a pedestrian crossing at a point on North Road West but it was felt that it would be unusual to install a pedestrian crossing on a country road.

-       A length of the hedgerow will be lost to create access and concern was raised that this would represent significant biodiversity net loss and be a key loss of a wildlife corridor. This will also negatively impact the current safe use of North Road West by cyclists, runners and walkers.

-       Concern was raised that once the road is resurfaced people will exceed the 30mph speed limit in the stretch of the road that pedestrians will be able to access. It was also noted that whilst it was possible for cars to pass each other the road was tight.

-       As the access would only be for 60 properties it will not represent a significant increase in traffic.

-       There are existing drainage issue on North Road West. It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The committee noted the appeals update.

There were none.

The committee noted the briefing note.