Issue - meetings

Proposed erection of detached dwelling with new vehicular access.

Earlier on in the meeting as reported under Minute 64 above, Councillor McWilliams had declared that she was the Ward Member. She therefore withdrew from the meeting and took no part whilst the Committee deliberated and made its decision on this application.

Members were told that this application was before Members as Officers were recommending approval for a proposal that represented a departure from the Local Plan. The application sought planning permission for a new residential development outside of the Great Bentley Settlement Development Boundary (SDB) as defined currently within the adopted Tendring District Local Plan 2013 to 2033 and Beyond.

The Committee was told that the application site served a vacant piece of land, currently in use as part of the side garden for Fir Tree House, located amongst established residential development to the eastern side of Plough Road.

Officers informed Members that the application sought full planning permission for the erection of a detached two-storey dwelling with vehicular access from Plough Road.

The Committee was made aware that the site currently benefited from a previous, and currently still extant, planning approval 20/01618/FUL for the erection of a detached dwelling with new vehicular access. This approval was extant and would expire o 23 February 2024. It was important to note that this approval had been granted under a previous Tendring District Local Plan (2007), whereby the site had been included in the settlement development boundary of Aingers Green. The current application was essentially looking to extend the timeframe of that approval.

Members were further informed that the site lay approximately 0.63km (629.5 metres) outside of the settlement development boundary of Great Bentley and was therefore contrary to the spatial strategy set out within the Tendring District Local Plan Policy SP3 and Policy SPL2. Whilst Policy SPL2 did not explicitly preclude residential development outside of the defined boundary, it nevertheless required decision makers to carefully consider the scale of development in relation to the settlement hierarchy category, site-specific characteristics, and sustainability of the site.

Officers told Members that the site benefited from a bus stop directly to its front for services to nearby Great Bentley and Colchester. The site was therefore considered by Officers to be reasonably accessible to a range of services and facilities.

Furthermore, Members were finally told that, as briefly mentioned before, another key material consideration lay in the existence of an extant planning permission for the construction of a detached dwelling with vehicular access at the site. Officers believed that this significantly tipped the planning balance in favour of approval despite the high-level policy conflict in regard to the location of the site outside of the defined settlement boundary. Moreover, the development would not result in the opinion of Officers in any material harm in terms of design, impact, residential amenities, or highway safety over and above the extant approval, and it was also considered to be acceptable in all other regards.

An Officer Update Sheet had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68