Agenda item - 21/01834/FP Former Westons Cars Site And Land Adjoining 114-142 Cambridge Road, Hitchin, Herts, SG4 0JJ

REPORT OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION MANAGER

Erection of three, 3-storey blocks to provide 24 apartments (7 x 1-bed and 17 x 2-bed) and a terrace of 4 x 3 bedroom houses including associated car parking and vehicular and pedestrian access, cycle and refuse storage, landscaping and open space following demolition of the existing buildings (as amended by plans received 3/11/21).

RESOLVED: That application 21/01834/FP be GRANTED planning permission subject to the reasons and conditions outlined in the report of the Senior Planning Officer and with the following additional conditions:

· Condition 22 to be added with the following:

Prior to the commencement of the development hereby permitted full details of all boundary treatments throughout the development shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The development shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details.

Reason: In the interests of residential amenity

· Condition 23 to be added with the following:

Prior to the commencement of the development hereby permitted full details of mobility scooter storage provision shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The development shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details

Reason: To ensure adequate provision for mobility scooter users

Audio Recording:2:06:10

The Senior Planning Officer advised that there were a number of updates to provide to Members including:

· As alluded to in the report, the applicant has now confirmed their agreement to pay the Council £100,000 as a financial contribution in lieu of affordable housing provision on the site;

· There are some revisions to the S106 contributions in the report: Paragraph 4.76 has a contribution that is missing. This was originally requested by the County Council and it is £10,296 plus the indexation towards Special Education Needs and Disabilities;

· The applicant has queried the conclusions in the report regarding the viability. This relates to Paragraphs 4.60-4.63 as not including the revised comments of the Council’s viability consultants Dixon Searle Partnership in response to additional information that the applicant submitted to the Council. Would advise that this query is justified as the revised comments of the consultants do state that they accept the overall conclusion that the scheme will not support a contribution to affordable housing;

· Following further discussions with local residents, the applicant has suggested an additional planning condition to secure details of boundary treatments.

The Senior Planning Officer presented the report in respect of application 21/01834/FP supported by a visual presentation consisting of photographs and plans

The following Members asked questions:

· Councillor Ian Mantle

· Councillor Michael Muir

· Councillor David Levett

In response to questions from Members the Senior Planning Officer advised:

· The proposal to remove permitted development rights are one of the conditions included in the report;

· There are dedicated bin stores and a cycle store for Block D along the left side of it. Block C has a cycle store towards the left hand corner which is shared with Block B. Both Block B and Block C have their own bin storage areas. There is no specific provision for mobility scooters but a condition could be added.

· The bin storage area for the houses are situated at the back.

· The main access road includes a turning head in the centre of the site which is suitable for refuse collection vehicle to enter the site and leave in forward gear; the Highway Authority are happy with these arrangements.

· Part of the vegetation has grown out since the building has been left unoccupied but it is unknown whether that goes past the red line in the plans.

The Chair invited Dan Burden and Jon Scurr to speak against the application.

Mr Burden and Mr Scurr thanked the Chair for the opportunity to speak and gave a verbal presentation including:

· Mr Burden lives opposite to the proposed entrance of the development and is representing the residents of Hamden Road;

· All of the traffic will come on the residential road of Hamden, no traffic will go on the main thoroughfare of Cambridge;

· Since the Old College Site has been redeveloped the pictures shown in the Officer’s presentation of Hamden Road do not show that is now essentially a car park;

· Paragraph 5.54 of the reports state a prediction of an extra 20 cars during the morning rush-hour, we are looking at a development of 28 residences which will see 2 vehicles per flat;

· Paragraph 4.34 claims there is an existing primary entry point to the garage which is incorrect;

· Mr Scurr lives at the end of the Allwoods Place development which will be right next to the new blocks;

· This plan represents an overdevelopment of the site and the wrong housing mix, think that small houses for families like Block A is what is required for the other blocks;

· Do not feel that the flooding objection raised by the Flood Authority has been addressed, the developer has put forward their own assessment but this hasn’t been formally accepted;

· The main objection is overlooking a loss of property, cramming 4 separate development blocks into this site will inevitably to them being overlooked from all sides. These buildings will overlook and effect light of those living on Allwoods Place and Cambridge Road.

The Chair invited Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg to speak against the application.

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg thanked the Chair for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation including:

· Councillor Dennis-Harburg has been working with the residents of the roads nearby for the past year and only in the past 14 days have they heard any positive engagement from the applicants;

· On the 26^th January, the Lead Local Flood Authority sent through a very clear and strong objection to this site. It set out that there is no acceptable flood risk assessment or surface water drainage assessment in place and therefore this submission is non-compliant;

· There is significant flooding already in this area. Neighbors of Cambridge Road have been informed that the existing infrastructure in place is not sufficient to tolerate any further building;

· There is much more work to do to make this site compliant for the safety and mitigation of risk fir the new and existing community around this site;

· There is no dry-safe pedestrian access should there be a flood;

· A couple of areas residents would like to see ongoing discussions around including maintaining entryways and access sites, noise from a gate attached to a nearby property, the encouragement of anti-social behaviour, headlights flashing into windows, floodlight switch on times, safe demolition given reports of asbestos, increasing the appeal and biodiversity of the new buildings and making sure there is no negative impact on the substation from the development including performing electromagnetic field surveys before during and after construction.

The Chair invited Matt Corcoran to speak, on behalf of the applicant, in favour of the application.

Mr. Corcoran thanked the Chair for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation including:

· The applicant has worked positively with the Council officers over the past couple of years;

· The application site is a sustainable brown field location which has fallen vacant over the last 4 years;

· The proposals include a significant array of public realm enhancements including improving the Cambridge Road frontage;

· The site is at present all hard-surfaced and includes unsightly vacant industrial sized buildings with unrestricted commercial use not considered appropriate for such a residential location;

· The development will be providing an acceptable level of car parking; each family home has two car parking spaces with visitors and there is no objection from the Highway Authority on access and transport matters;

· The joint developers are part of the considerate contractor scheme so resident engagement will be continued should Members approve the planning permission;

· This site is a windfall site which appears in the Council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment and the numbers being proposed are lower than the Council’s technical evidence base;

· The applicants have been working closely with Council officers and in the report there is a surface water condition, number 20. The site is not in a flood-risk area, which Anglian Water have accepted.

Following a question of clarification from Councillor David Levett, Mr Corcoran advised that following trix analysis of the development and no further objections from the Highways Authority there is considered to be no impacts on the local highway network. The additional traffic data from the new site has been taken into account in those calculations.

In response to points raised by public speakers, the Senior Planning Officer advised:

· The site is within flood zone 1 which is the lowest area likely to flood according to the Environment Agency. There is going to be less hard surfacing and more soft landscape;

· The site plan shows pedestrian access to the north onto Cambridge Road and to the south through the existing shared surface onto Hamden Road;

· Condition number 21 deals with any external lighting within the scheme;

· Several conditions relating to construction requiring the developer to carry out the construction phase in accordance with British standards;

· Condition 7 is a landscaping condition as well as the condition the Senior Planning Officer mentioned in his initial update;

· There will be a contribution of £4,000 towards a new traffic regulation order which will consider any restrictions can be placed within that part of Hamden Road to control on street parking.

The following Members took part in the debate: