Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Contact: Becky Capon on 01483 743011 or email  becky.capon@woking.gov.uk 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 23 June 2020 as published.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 June 2020 be approved and signed as a true and correct record.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor L Lyons.

3.

Declarations of Interest

(i)    To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary and other interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

(ii)   In accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct, any Member who is a Council- appointed Director of a Thameswey Group company will declare a non-pecuniary interest in any item involving that Thameswey Group company. The interest will not prevent the Member from participating in the consideration of that item.

(iii)   In accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, any Officer who is a Council- appointed Director of a Thameswey Group company will declare an interest in any item involving that Thameswey Group company. The interest will not prevent the Officer from advising the Committee on that item.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

No interests were declared under this item.

4.

Urgent Business

To consider any business that the Chairman rules may be dealt with under Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no items of Urgent Business.

5.

Planning and Enforcement Appeals pdf icon PDF 54 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report on the planning appeals lodged and the appeal decisions.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

6.

Planning Applications pdf icon PDF 50 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee determined the following applications subject to the conditions, informatives, reasons for refusal or authorisation of enforcement action which appear in the published report to the Committee or as detailed in these minutes.

 

6a

2020/0340 12 Chertsey Road, Woking pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered an application for the change of use of the lower ground floor and part of the ground floor from A4 to A3/A5 Use Class with change of use of part of the ground floor and first floor from A4 to 4no C3 units. External changes were proposed on the rear elevation to facilitate these changes.

 

Councillor T Aziz, Ward Councillor, commented that he welcomed the application to develop this derelict site.

 

RESOLVED that planning permission be granted subject to recommended conditions and SAMM (TBH SPA) contribution secured by Legal Agreement.

6b

2019/1239 Pyrford Green House, Pyrford Road, Woking pdf icon PDF 49 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered an application which sought permission for the erection of a new barn to house agricultural machinery.

 

Councillor G Elson, Ward Councillor, commented that he had no issues with the application for the erection of a new barn as this was appropriate development for this green belt area.

 

Following a query from the Chairman the Planning Officer advised the Members that this application was considered acceptable as it was for agricultural use and it was not deemed to cause harm to the green belt.

 

RESOLVED that planning permission be granted subject to conditions.

6c

ENF/2018/0036 7 Martin Way, Woking pdf icon PDF 272 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered an enforcement report regarding the unauthorised development – construction of metal bike shed to the front of the property and associated engineering operations including removal of soil to re-level the land, formation of gravel surface, installation of wooden sleepers as retaining walls and erection of a wooden lattice fence.

 

Following a query from the Chairman the Planning Officer confirmed that that Officers had tried to engage with the householder on many occasions in order to return this land to its prior state.

 

Councillor L Morales queried whether the proposed wording for point (d) of the Enforcement Notice could be re-worded to include the term ‘returf’ as it could be very difficult to re-seed an area that was on such a slope. The Planning Officer confirmed that it would be acceptable to amend the wording so the householder had the choice of how to achieve the desired outcome.

 

RESOLVED that an Enforcement Notice be issued in respect of the above land requiring the following within three months of the notice taking effect;

 

(a) Remove the metal bike shed/store;

(b) Remove the wooden lattice fence;

(c) Reinstate the excavated area of the land to its former level and condition prior to the engineering operation taking place (see associated photos and drawings);

(d) To re-seed or returf the excavated area of the land; and

(e) To remove all materials and paraphernalia associated with the reinstatement of the land described at (c) above.

7.

Development Manager - Scheme of Delegation. pdf icon PDF 121 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

[Note: During the debate on this item, a Member referred to Council-owned companies. The following interests were then declared.

 

In accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, Peter Bryant, Director of Legal and Democratic Services declared a non-pecuniary interest in this item arising from his position as a Council appointed Director of Thameswey Group Companies, Kingfield Community Sports Centre Limited, Rutland Group companies and Brookwood Cemetery companies. The interest was such that it would not prevent the Officer from advising on this item.

 

In accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, Douglas Spinks, Deputy Chief Executive, declared a non-pecuniary interest in this item arising from his position as a Council appointed Director of Thameswey Group Companies and Brookwood Cemetery companies. The interest was such that it would not prevent the Officer from advising on this item.]

 

The Committee considered a report which detailed the review of the Council’s Scheme of Delegations to the Development Manager

 

Councillor S Ashall commented that this review of the Scheme of Delegations was welcomed and a positive move forward on how we do business at the planning Committee. He supported the criteria set out in the report and thought that it was important that Members retained the ability to call in applications to the Planning Committee if need be. Councillor S Ashall commented that he did not agree with the revised trigger threshold in relation to the number of dwellings proposed in a development for the application to be determined by the Planning Committee; he would be happier for this to remain at ten, as in the national definition of ‘major developments’.

 

Some Members supported the view of Councillor S Ashall regarding the trigger threshold, whereas others welcomed the change and thought it would give the Committee greater control and prevent developers undercutting the figure to avoid determination by Planning Committee.

 

Councillor S Ashall proposed and it was duly seconded by Cllr G Elson a motion to amend the trigger threshold in relation to the number of dwellings proposed in a development for the application to be determined by the Planning Committee. This was currently set at five dwellings in the proposed Scheme of Delegations and Councillor S Ashall proposed it should be set at ten dwellings.

 

In accordance with Standing Order 22.2, the Chairman deemed that a division should be taken on the motion above.  The votes for and against approval of the motion were recorded as follows.

In favour:                           Cllrs Ashall, G Elson and N Martin.

                                 TOTAL:  3

Against:                              Cllrs T Aziz, A Boote, G Chrystie, S Hussain and L Morales.

                                 TOTAL:  5

Present but not voting:      None.

                                 TOTAL:  0

The motion was therefore not approved.

 

The Chairman and Councillor L Morales suggested that planning applications from Council owned Companies should need to be determined by the Planning Committee. Douglas Spinks commented that this issue was not raised when the proposed Scheme of Delegation was discussed by the Working Group and that Members had initiated the review of the Scheme in order to increase Delegated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.