Issue - meetings

REFUSED

Description of Application: Demolition of existing garages and erection of 2 two storey semi-detached 4 bedroomed dwellings with associated parking and cycle and refuse stores. The application had been referred to the Committee because of a Councillor call in and the Planning Officer’s recommendation was that the application should be permitted. It was noted that this application was in the St. Paul's Cray Conservation Area.

The Planning Officer briefed Members that this application, along with Item.4.5 on the agenda for the same site, followed on from a recent refusal and dismissed appeal. The applications sought to address the reasons for the previous refusal and dismissed appeal. The Planning Officers agreed that the revised application had addressed the previous concerns and so now were recommending that the application be permitted. Representations had been received and forwarded to Members ahead of the meeting. 

Oral objections to the application were received from a local resident.

A Member noted that a drain was located under the site.

Ward Councillor Chris Price attended the meeting and spoke in objection to the application. He expressed his thanks to Councillor Owen who had noted his thoughts on the application via e-mail earlier in the week. He was someone who had visited the site and had been involved in the process of the application for some time. Cllr Price said that he would also like to thank Cllr Bear who in her time as the Ward Councillor for this area, had led an excellent case for rejecting the previous applications on the site. He said that he had concerns about the report that had been presented to the Committee. He expressed the view that many of the previous issues that had been raised by Councillor Bear had not been addressed in the new application. He quoted from the report saying ‘residents had raised a number of issues which are addressed and subsequently dismissed by the Appeal Inspector on the previous appeal. Other issues raised can be dealt with by imposing planning conditions’. He expressed the view that it was not appropriate to deal with these issues just by imposing planning conditions.

Cllr Price stated that problems associated with drainage still existed and that the drain access hatch was still located under the living room of Unit 1. Councillor Price stated that as a result of a Land Registry search in 2020, it was confirmed that the land was part of Inglewood. He said that the drawings in sections 2.5 and  3.5 of the report were misleading and should be removed. He commented further regarding where the report said that ‘there would be no impact on trees’ and he said that he found this hard to believe, particularly as no appropriate tree survey had been undertaken. He expressed the view that the tree that was referred to in the report was not in the correct position on the plans and that it was unlikely to survive the proposed development.

Cllr Price highlighted the fact that the applicant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8