Meeting documents

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 13 February 2019 (attached).

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 13 February 2019 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

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 noted that there was no Update Sheet but that this application had been the subject of a site visit.

Members voted in favour of the motion to refuse the application for the following reasons:

1.     The proposed chapel would be located in an isolated rural location which was not within or adjacent to an identified settlement, it was not served by public transport and was therefore car dependant, with poor pedestrian links. The proposed development was therefore considered to be unacceptable in principle in such an unsustainable rural location and insufficient justification had been advanced or was apparent which would overcome the harm arising from the development.

It was therefore contrary to Policy C10 of the adopted Wycombe District Local Plan to 2011 (as saved, extended and partially replaced), Policies CS2 (Main Principles for the Location of Development), CS7 (Rural Settlements and the Rural Areas) and CS15 (Community Facilities and Built Sports Facilities) of the adopted Wycombe Development Framework Core Strategy DPD, Policy DM1 (Presumption in Favour of Sustainable Development) of the adopted Delivery and Site Allocations Plan and Policy DM44 (Development in the Countryside Outside of the Green Belt of the submission version of the New Wycombe District Local Plan.

2.     The proposed building design failed to reflect the surrounding rural context and would have an incongruous appearance in this exposed rural landscape to the detriment of the rural character, appearance and visual amenities of the surrounding area.

It was therefore contrary to Policies G3 (General Design Policy) and C10 (Development in the Countryside Beyond the Green Belt) of the adopted Wycombe District Local Plan (as saved, extended and partially replaced) and CS19 (Raising the Quality of Place Shaping and Design) of the adopted Wycombe Development Framework Core Strategy DPD and Policy DM35 (Placemaking and Design Quality) of the submission version of the New Wycombe District Local Plan.

          RESOLVED: that the application be refused for the reasons outlined above.

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

Members noted that there was no presentation booked for the next Pre-Planning Committee training / Information Session on Wednesday 3 April 2019 at 6.00pm. It was therefore agreed that should no presentation be scheduled in the meantime then the next Planning Committee meeting would start at 6.30pm.

RESOLVED: That there was no information session scheduled for Wednesday 3 April 2019 and there being no presentation scheduled in the meantime, the next Committee meeting would start at 6.30pm.

To appoint Members to undertake site visits on Tuesday 2 April 2019 should the need arise.

RESOLVED: That in the event that it was necessary to arrange site visits on Tuesday 2 April 2019 in respect of the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday 3 April 2019, the following Members be invited to attend with the relevant local Members:

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

Members noted the Delegated Actions authorised by the Planning Enforcement Team.

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.