Agenda item

Recommendation:  Conditional Approval

Proposal:  Full planning application for the demolition of existing office building and erection of a cold store warehouse (B8 use class), with ancillary drivers rest accommodation with associated parking and landscaping, the closing of the existing access with formation of a new means of access.

Applicant:  Pulleyn Transport Ltd.

The Committee received and reviewed a report about this application, set out in Agenda pages 91 to 106 and Supplementary Agenda pages 3-18.

The Committee were advised that the Members’ Update included:

·         Proposed amendment to the report relating to floor space;

·         Information regarding the mitigation and compensation strategy for bats;

·         Clarification regarding the increase of traffic movements expected as a result of the development;

·         Clarification of the reference made to the special circumstances of the business;

·         Confirmation that the Policy Officer raised no objection to the proposal in respect of policy CP11;

·         Illustration of the alteration of the pathway gradient to control egress;

·         Proposed amendment to condition 2 to update plans;

·         Proposed changes to condition 12 regarding external lighting;

·         Proposed additional condition regarding the implementation of the mitigation and compensation strategy to ensure impacts on a protected species and residential amenity are mitigated;

·         Proposed additional informative regarding the specification of bat tubes and bat boxes to be used for roost compensation.

Members had visited the site on Friday 7 October.

Thomas Rumble, Woolf Bond Planning, spoke on behalf of the developer in support of the application.  He stated that the plan was supported by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) as it offered local employment.   He also commented on the access to the site, indicating that the plan would offer an improved view from Church Lane, a separate car park area, a bicycle store and a wider access to permit lorry movement.

Members raised questions regarding the increase in traffic movements and the impact of the proposed application on an area designated as countryside.  The Planning Officer stated that the figures in the report presented a worst case scenario in terms of the increase of traffic movements and that this was offset by the improved driver and parking areas on the site and the change to the design to preclude lorries turning left.  It was noted that, when viewed in the context of the existing site and the development of a landscaping bund, no harm could be demonstrated.

RESOLVED: That application No. 161631 be approved subject to the conditions set out in Supplementary Agenda pages 4 to 9, with the Report and condition 2 and 12 amended and the additional condition and informative as set out in the Members’ Update.