Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 September 2017            (PN3) and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 September were approved and signed.

Proper notice having been given under Standing Order 7(d)(i) Councillor Charles Mathew has requested an oral report regarding persistent breaches of a routeing agreement by Sheehans through the village of Sutton.

Officers will report.

Mr Periam gave an oral report regarding persistent breaches of a routeing agreement by Sheehans through Sutton village in response to an item requested by Councillor Mathew. The matter had arisen from an exchange of e-mails between Councillor Mathew and the agent for Sheehans with regard to a planning application which had now been received to vary a condition on the current planning permission for the site. As that application was yet to be determined members could not consider its merits of the application at this meeting and that his report was at this time for information but members were welcome to seek clarification.

Outlining the provisions of the current routeing agreement he referred to a number of  breaches which had taken place between 15 and 22 August and identified from the company’s own records based on tracking devices which were installed in each of the company’s own vehicles.The agent had also confirmed that there had been a couple of clear transgressions which had prompted Sheehan to issue a warning to the drivers concerned .The agent had given assurances that the company did take these issues very seriously and had introduced a new system to add on to their tracker system which would activate a computer generated email to the transport manager in real time within seconds of the rules being broken. Since that system had gone live no alerts have been received.  The agent had also suggested another check where local people were given the name of a Parish Councillor who would have an arranged link with the site’s management and be able to advise of any violation. That system worked well in other areas.

Mr Periam confirmed that officers had not received any complaints direct from members of the public with regard to violations of the routeing agreement since early 2016, but Councillor Mathew had advised that the routeing agreement continued to be breached. Therefore, he was proposing to arrange for county officers to carry out monitoring of the situation over the next three weeks. That would  involve two officers going out - one to record the registration details of any lorries passing along the B4449 through Sutton during the restricted times and the other near the site entrance to record the same information so that there would then be clear evidence as to whether any vehicle found to be breaching the agreement had visited the site. That needed to be done as there were lorries passing along the B4449 which were not associated with the site and so were not subject to the requirements of the routeing agreement. Any identified breaches identified would be drawn to the attention of Sheehan’s who would then be expected to check this against their own records and take any necessary action. The routeing agreement required that a driver for a main contractor or sub-contractor who breaches the agreement twice within a year be prohibited from the site.

An update on the results of that monitoring would be given at the 27  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39/17

Report by the Director for Planning & Place (PN7).

It is a statutory requirement that the Local List of Information Requirements for the Validation of Planning and Related Applications (the Local List) is updated at least every two years. If not then it cannot be used for the purposes of validating planning applications.

Planning & Regulation Committee resolved to adopt the current Local List on 19 October 2015. That was published on the website in January 2016 and so is due for updating by January 2018.

The list has been reviewed following an informal consultation with internal consultees. There have been no significant changes to the drivers for individual items on the list; therefore no major changes are necessary to the items on the list. The only new item on the list is the requirement for a drainage strategy. Other proposed modifications are minor changes to the detail in the supporting text.

It is RECOMMENDED that:

(a)         the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements as set out at Annex 1 to this report be subject to a three week period of public consultation;

(b)         if after that period and following further consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Planning & Regulation Committee, it was considered that no significant changes were required to the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements then the Director for Planning and Place be authorised to adopt and publish that list;

(c)          if, however, after that period and following further consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Planning & Regulation Committee, it was considered that significant changes were required to the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements, the matter be reported back to the Planning and Regulation Committee for further consideration.

The Committee considered (PN7) an update of the Local List of Information Requirements for the validation of planning and related applications. Updating the list every two years was a statutory requirement and as the last publication had been in January 2016 the reviewed list was due for republication by January 2018 after a new period of consultation.

Page 56 – Councillor Johnston expressed some concern regarding the adequacy of after-care and restoration schemes and asked that every effort be made to ensure conditions were enforceable.

Page 11 – Responding to Councillor Phillips Mary Thompson confirmed that pre-application discussions were always carried out “without prejudice” for example highlighting instances where applications clearly did not accord with agreed policy but needed to.

Councillor Stratford expressed some reservations regarding the robustness of restoration schemes. He aslo considered that the section on drainage needed to be given greater prominence.

Page 40 - Councillor Reynolds expressed some scepticism regarding the accuracy and worth of photomontages and as an example of that cited those which had been prepared for the Ardley energy from waste plant.

Councillor Stratford echoed those comments adding that a lot of information supplied with regard to that particular facility could be construed as misleading and the County Council needed to be more rigorous in its planning deliberations.

Page 27 – Councillor Fox-Davies raised some concern at the lack of information in the Surface Water Drainage section of the report which he felt needed greater clarity regarding what the guidelines were.

RESOLVED: (on a motion by the Chairman, seconded by Councillor Johnston and carried nem con) that:

(a)          the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements as set out at Annex 1 to this report be subject to a three week period of public consultation;

(b)       if after that period and following further consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Planning & Regulation Committee, it was considered that no significant changes were required to the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements then the Director for Planning and Place be authorised to adopt and publish that list;

(c)       if, however, after that period and following further consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Planning & Regulation Committee, it was considered that significant changes were required to the draft revised Local List of Information Requirements, the matter be reported back to the Planning and Regulation Committee for further consideration.

Approved

Approved

Approved