12/0987 - Appendix 3

Item no. 13 & 14

Page no. 6 & 26

Address:

Land r/o Police Headquarters, Sutton Road, M/S

Land to r/o Police Training School, St Saviours Rd, M/S

 

Reference no. MA/12/0986

 

                        MA/12/0987

Following further discussions with Kent Highway Services the proposed Head of Term in relation to the highways contribution on the recommendation of both applications is to be altered as set out below. This would be as recommended in the Boughton Lane application.

"Highway capacity improvements at the Loose Road/Sutton Road junction (such as a roundabout or highway  reconfiguration with physical traffic signal alterations and pedestrian and cycle connections to the town centre), and approaches to the Town Centre Bridge gyratory traffic signal junctions, necessary to mitigate against the severe impact of the development on congestion and highway safety at these junctions."

 

Following further consideration of conditions I propose the following slight amendment to condition 4 of MA/12/0986 and condition 3 of MA/12/0987 to read:-

The reserved matters application(s) shall be accompanied by updated ecological surveys including any required mitigation and enhancement measures (including within the fabric of the buildings) to improve biodiversity;

 

Concern has been raised in relation to the scheme only achieving level 3 on the Code for Sustainable Homes rather than level 4. There is no adopted policy in the Maidstone Borough-Wide Local Plan (2000) relating to Code for Sustainable Homes and whilst the emerging policy carries some weight, I consider that in this particular case, bearing in mind the application is proposing 40% affordable housing in accordance with the adopted DPD rather than the 30% in the emerging policy, that level 3 is acceptable.

 

In relation to other contributions the NHS have revised their requests to only request contributions in relation to the market portion and exclude the affordable housing element of the developments as opposed to the whole scheme. Therefore the Heads of Terms should be amended as follows:-

 

MA/12/0986

 

£56,440 based on an average occupancy of 2.34 persons per dwelling towards improvements at the named surgeries of Grove Park Surgery, Mote Medical Centre, Northumberland Court Surgery, Wallis Avenue Surgery, Boughton Lane Surgery, College Practice, Bearsted Medical Practice, Marsham Street Surgery and The Vine Surgery all of which are within 2 miles of the site.

 

MA/12/0987

 

£45,489 based on an average occupancy of 2.34 persons per dwelling towards improvements at the named surgeries of Mote Medical Centre, Wallis Avenue Surgery, Grove Park Surgery, Northumberland Court Surgery, Boughton Lane Surgery and the College Practice all of which are within 2 miles of the site.

 

Representations

 

One letter has been received indicating that the time between notification of the committee and the committee itself is insufficient to make arrangements and a month would be more appropriate. The committee letters are always sent out approximately a week before the committee date and is considered sufficient time for speakers to make arrangements and register.