Meeting documents

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 17 January 2018 (attached).

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 17 January 2018 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman subject to the amendment of two officer’s job titles.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: that the reports be received and the recommendations contained in the reports, as amended by the update sheet where appropriate, be adopted, subject to any deletions, updates or alterations set out in the minutes below.

Members voted unanimously in favour of the motion to approve the application.

          RESOLVED: that the application be approved.

The Committee was addressed by Ms Gloria Leflaive on behalf of the Naphill and Walters Ash Residents Association in objection and Mr Jake Collinge, the agent on behalf of the applicant.

Councillor S Raja did not vote on the item due to joining the meeting during the item.

Members noted the further clarification received from the Highway Authority set out in the Update sheet.

Following a full debate, Members voted on the motion to defer the application to allow further discussion with the applicant.  This motion was carried.

          RESOLVED: that the item be deferred to allow officers to request that the applicant:

a)  further investigate alternative access arrangements;

b)  further investigate moving the location of the transformer to a less intrusive location as suggested in the comments of the landscape officer;

c)  investigate the provision of a more immediate and robust landscaping scheme;

d)  provide transformer "noise in service" levels and background noise information, and

e)  to provide photographs or video of the type of vehicles that would be used to bring plant and materials to the site.

The Committee was addressed by Councillor C Harriss, the local Ward Member.

The Committee was addressed by Mr James Butler in objection and Ms Louise Leyland, the agent on behalf of the applicant.

Members noted in the revised response from the Highway Authority that the car parks and town centre on-street bays were now operating at peak capacity. While they concluded that the proposal would not result in a highway safety issue, it would be for the Planning Authority to consider if the under provision of off-street car parking would result in an amenity issue.

Anecdotally Members’ shared experiences of parking in the Marlow Town centre and noted that the car parking situation had been deteriorating over time and that town centre parking was now often at capacity. In response to this it was further noted that the Council had commissioned Parking Matters to undertake a review of parking which would include Marlow.  Parking Matters were due to report at the end of April.

Following a full debate, Members voted in favour of the motion to refuse the application.

RESOLVED: that the application be refused for the following reason:

In the opinion of the Local Planning Authority, the development would fail to provide adequate on-site parking facilities to cope with predicted demand.

Since the Marlow Parking Review was published in 2016, the provision of additional development in the town had taken public car parking occupancy over 100% at peak times. The Liston Road public car park opposite was already constantly operating very close to maximum capacity and at maximum capacity at peak times, resulting in queues, delays in vehicles parking and visitors being unable to park. This would further exacerbate this situation resulting in inconvenience to patrons using the car park to access the shopping and other town centre facilities in the immediate vicinity and would consequently impact on the economy of the town.

Alternatively as there was nowhere for displaced parking to be readily accommodated nearby this would be likely to give rise to displaced car parking on the residential streets beyond the town centre; the town centre having controlled short stay on-street parking. This would increase the on-street parking stress which would lead to a loss of residential amenity and inconvenience for local residents and their visitors.

As such the development was contrary to Policies G8 (Detailed Design Guidance and Local Amenity) and T2 (On-Site Parking and Servicing) of the Adopted Wycombe District Local Plan to 2011 (as saved, extended and partially replaced); and Policies CS19 (Raising the Quality of Place-Shaping and Design), CS5 (Marlow), CS20 (Transport and Infrastructure) of the Adopted Core Strategy Development Planning Document and the Buckinghamshire Countywide Parking Guidance (adopted Sept 2015).

The Committee was addressed by Councillor R Scott, the local Ward Member.

The Committee was addressed by Mr Martin Blunkell of the Marlow Society in objection.

Members voted in favour of the motion to approve the application.

          RESOLVED: that the application be approved.

The Committee was addressed by Councillor A Turner, the local Ward Member.

Members voted in favour of the motion to approve the application.

          RESOLVED: that the application be approved.

The Committee was addressed by Councillor D Johncock, the local Ward Member.

The Committee was addressed by Parish Councillor Caroline Leonard of the Chepping Wycombe Parish Council in objection and Mr Alan Hooper, the agent on behalf of the applicant.

Following a tied vote and the Chairman exercising his Casting Vote, the Committee voted against the motion to refuse permission for the additional two reasons of overdevelopment and parking issues. The Committee then voted unanimously in favour of the motion to refuse the application in line with officer’s recommendation.

          RESOLVED: that the application be refused.

The Committee was addressed by Councillor D Johncock, the local Ward Member.

Councillor M Asif excused himself from the meeting following this item.

Following a motion for deferral which Members voted against, Members then voted in favour of the motion to refuse the application in line with officer’s recommendation.

          RESOLVED: that the application be refused.

The Committee was addressed by Councillor C Harriss, the local Ward Member.

The Committee noted there was an error in that the 17 March was quoted as being the next pre-committee training/information session where it should be Wednesday 7 March 2018.  They noted that a request had been received from Red Kite to present amended redevelopment proposals for one of their sites in Castlefield and that it would take place on Wednesday 7 March 2018 at 6.00pm in Committee Room 1. 

However, it was agreed that should this session be cancelled, then the next Committee meeting would start at 6.30pm.

To appoint Members to undertake site visits on Tuesday 6 March 2018 should the need arise.

RESOLVED: That in the event that it was necessary to arrange site visits on Tuesday 6 March 2018 in respect of the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday 7 March 2018, the following Members be invited to attend with the relevant local Members:

Councillors: Ms A Baughan, S Graham, C B Harriss, D A Johncock, N B Marshall, Mrs C Oliver, N J B Teesdale, A Turner, P R Turner and C Whitehead.

The Delegated Actions authorised by the Planning Enforcement Team were noted.

Submission of the file of actions taken under delegated powers since the previous meeting.

The file on actions taken under delegated authority since the previous meeting was circulated for the Committee’s attention.