Issue - meetings

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Planning and Development.

In introducing the application, the Principal Planning Officer advised Members that:

·  When the application was originally reported to the Committee in March 2021, there had been two urgent updates.  Unfortunately, one of the urgent updates from the March Committee meeting was not attached as part of the Appendix to the report for this meeting.  When this came to light, the update was circulated separately to Members and published online with the agenda.  In summary, the update provided a correction/clarification to the original Committee report; an amendment to condition 34; and details of further representations made at the time.

·  Since publication of the agenda, a further representation had been received from Nettlestead Parish Council, but it did not raise any new material planning issues.

Councillor Russell (Visiting Member) read out a statement on behalf of Ms O’Hare, an objector, in person.

Mr Woodhead, agent for the applicant, addressed the meeting in person.

Councillor Russell (Visiting Member) addressed the meeting in person.

Councillor Burton (Visiting Member) addressed the meeting remotely.

In response to comments, the Principal Planning Officer advised the Committee that:

·  The focus for consideration was now the Sequential Test as all other matters had been addressed at the time of the original decision. 

·  The issue of contamination was different from the Sequential Test the aim of which was to steer new development to areas with the lowest risk of flooding from any source.

·  Sites or garden settlements in the emerging Local Plan Review are not currently available and so are not reasonable available alternatives under the Sequential Test.

RESOLVED:  That subject to:

A.  The prior completion of a legal agreement in such terms as the Head of Legal Services may advise to secure the Heads of Terms set out in the report with the widening of the scope of the proposed Development/Delivery Group (Head of Terms number 8) to include consideration of the site flood evacuation emergency plan;

AND

B.  The conditions set out in the report with:

  The amendment of condition 7 (Flood Risk Mitigation) to require the resilient trunking of utilities; and

An informative advising that the new lighting to be provided in the car park at Yalding Railway Station with S106 funding from the developer should be environmentally sensitive so that it does not impact on neighbours and biodiversity,

the Head of Planning and Development be given delegated powers to grant permission and to be able to settle or amend any necessary Heads of Terms and planning conditions in line with the matters set out in the recommendation and as resolved by the Planning Committee; this to include investigation of whether a condition requiring a resilient wastewater system on site would meet the relevant tests for planning conditions and the addition of such a condition if appropriate.

Voting:  11 – For  0 – Against  0 – Abstentions