Agenda item

Councillor Clive Stevens stood down from Committee at the start of the public forum presentation and took no part in debate or the decision making process.

The Head of Development Management and his representative gave a presentation and summarised the report for this item highlighting the following:

a.     The application is a resubmission following refusal of application no:18/02901/F; for the construction of two, class use C3 dwellings and associated external alterations in Clifton Conservation Area; a former quarry site; on a narrow piece of land with a number of challenges.

b.     The current application addresses the two areas of concern that resulted in its refusal in January 2019 with the following changes detailed in the report, in brief:

·       Space Standards: the plans have been redrawn so each proposed house has a one bedroom and a study.  This meets the national space standards for dwelling size overall, minimum bedroom width and minimum storage requirements but not the minimum floor area for a double bedroom.  With a restricted site the applicant is unable to increase the overall size of the dwellings.  Conditions could not be applied to prevent the marketing of the property as two bedrooms. Officers have therefore assessed the proposed dwellings as 2-bedroom houses, which do not meet the national space standards.

·       Fire appliance access: – the swept path analysis confirmed that fire appliances would gain access by reversing fire vehicles along Quarry Steps and then reverse into Quarry Road to where a fire hydrant is located within the required 45meters of the site as required by Manual for Streets guidance; A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) is recommended restricting parking at the junction and also immediately outside the site to ensure that emergency vehicles are not impeded.

c.      Officer recommendation is approval together with conditions set out in the report and amendment sheet.

d.     Question for Clarification

e.     Members were advised that the approach taken by the Developers in altering plans to re-designate one of the bedrooms as a study, was not one that officers supported but as officers previously advised, in their opinion it would comply with the general policy requirement under Policy BCS18 as per the approved 2014 application.

f.       The Fire Authority were consulted on the previous application and advised that they do not comment specifically on individual planning applications, but they advised the general considerations to be taken into account- which are those set out within the Manual for Streets. The current application has been assessed on that basis.

g.      With the possible introduction of new traffic regulations to support fire appliances access it was hard to determine exactly how many parking spaces would be lost.   Introducing parking restrictions at the junction corner would impact 2/3 vehicles, with the possible loss of 4/5 directly along the frontage of the site. The officer did not agree with the public forum statement that suggested that the proposal would result in the loss of 10-20 parking spaces.

h.     Debate

i.       Members were satisfied that the issue of access for fire appliances had been worked through but could not support the action taken by the developers to meet the requirements of the space standards policy.  Noting that conditions could not be applied to restrict the marketing of the dwellings and to prevent future owners using the ‘study’ as a bedroom.

j.       The Chair moved that committee first consider whether to support officer recommendation to approve the application.  Cllr M Davies proposed approval however no member seconded the motion.

k.      The Chair moved that committee defer the application on the grounds that the space standards had not been met.  He looked to committee to support but the motion was not seconded.

l.       Cllr Wright, seconded by Cllr Smith, moved that committee vote against officer recommendation and refuse the application on the grounds that the proposal failed to comply with the Nationally Described Space Standards.

m.   When put to the vote

n.     Resolved: (8 for: 1 against: 0 abstention) That the application be refused on the grounds that the Nationally Described Space Standards had not been met.