Meeting documents

Ms E Catcheside, Planning Lead Officer, Buckinghamshire County Council reminded the Committee that the application had been refused in December 2017.  In June 2018, the applicant exercised its right to appeal the decision of the County Council to refuse planning permission; the reasons for the refusal were set out in paragraph 2 of the report.  The draft Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2016-2036 was now at an advanced stage and Buckinghamshire County Council wanted to put forward "prematurity" as an additional reason for refusal.

Ms Catcheside presented the location of the site, along with photographs, as a reminder of the location of the appeal site, which had been extracted of mineral but had not been filled with waste and was therefore an unrestored void.

The Chairman summarised that the Committee had already taken a decision on this site and that it was currently out to appeal and officers were asking for prematurity to be an additional reason for refusal.  The appeal scheme was considered to amount to a strategic development that would undermine the plan-making process by pre-determining decisions about scale, location or phasing that were central to the emerging Minerals and Waste Local plan and that this would prejudice the outcome of the plan-making process.

A member of the Committee asked if adding prematurity as an additional reason for refusal would strengthen the case.  Ms Catcheside advised that the Council’s case was to defend the existing reasons for refusal and that the additional reason for refusal  was due to developments with the emerging Minerals and Waste Local Plan since the original decision was made, and therefore was important. Ms Catcheside explained that the application was in the hands of the Inspector and it was a matter of the County Council putting forward reasons why planning should not be granted.  The Chairman reminded the Committee that the applicant, now the appellant, had promoted the site for permanent waste management development through the plan making process and had said the proposed spatial strategy in the draft Mineral and Waste local plan was too limited to deliver the waste management capacity.  If Committee were minded to agree, it would make clear that the Committee did not believe the argument by the appellant was germane in these circumstances.

Another member of the Committee asked if the refusal was agreed and the appeal were dismissed, would the landowner have to return the land to its original use.  Ms Catcheside said that the planning permission had expired but that new permissions would be issued following the completion of a S106 Deed of Variation, and those permissions would require the completion of the restoration of the land to agriculture and woodland.  Ms Catcheside was unsure why there had been a delay in the completion of the Section 106 and offered to follow it up.

ACTION:  Ms Catcheside

In response to a question from a member of the Committee, Ms Catcheside confirmed the Inspector may allow the appeal or dismiss the appeal and accept any one of the reasons or a combination of the reasons.  The County Council’s role was to put the case forward with an additional reason for refusal on prematurity due to the emerging draft Buckinghamshire County Council’s Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2016-2036 being at an advanced stage of preparation and, therefore, a material change in circumstances since the application was refused.  The Chairman clarified it was the Minerals and Waste Local Plan rather than the South Bucks and Chiltern District Council’s Joint Local Plan; the deadline of which had extended and was at an early stage of development.

The Committee voted to approve the application as follows:

RESOLVED:  The Committee unanimously APPROVED the invitation to DELEGATE AUTHORITY to the Head of Planning and Environment to RAISE PREMATURITY AS AN ADDITIONAL REASON FOR REFUSAL for the reason that, in accordance with paragraphs 49 and 50 of the National Planning Policy Framework, the development would undermine the plan-making process by pre-determining decisions about scale, location or phasing of new development that are central to the emerging plan and that this would prejudice the outcome of the plan-making process.