Agenda and minutes

County Councillor C Henig replaced County Councillor M Dad on the committee.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of County Councillor Tony Jones.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

County Councillor C Crompton declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda Item 8 as a member of the Planning Committee at Preston City Council.

County Councillors Ellard and Sedgewick declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda item 8 as County Councillors in the Preston area.

County Councillor P Buckley declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda item 4 as his wife was a member of the Borough Council for the area concerned.

County Councillor Hayhurst declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda item 4 as a Fylde County Councillor.

County Councillor Aldridge declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda item 5 as a member of West Lancashire Borough Council.

Lancashire Waste and Minerals Local Plan

It was reported that the Lancashire Minerals and Waste Local Plan (LMWLP) had been superseded and replaced by the Joint Lancashire Minerals and Waste Local Plan – Site Allocation and Development Management Policies following its adoption on the 26^th September 2013

It was noted that the LMWLP would no longer be referred to in reports and would be removed from the list of acronyms and abbreviations.

The committee are asked to agree that the Minutes of the last meeting held on 4 September 2013 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Reference was made to Resolution 6 of the Minutes with regard to application 14/13/0239 in relation to Waterbarn Mill, Bacup.

The committee was informed that a site visit on 8 October 2013 had confirmed that the operator of the waste transfer station granted planning permission on 18 November 2010 (ref 14/10/0452), had complied with the requirements of a breach of condition notice served on him on 3 September 2013 in respect of condition 5 which required all waste management operations to be undertaken within the existing building. The operator had however, failed to comply with the requirement for the purposes of Condition 6 which required that all skips to be stored within the building.

It was noted that the operations would continue to be monitored and appropriate action pursued in the event a further breach of the condition was identified.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 September, 2013 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

A report was presented on an application for the change of use from a general industrial unit (Class B2) to metal recycling site at Unit 2, Scafell Road, Queensway Industrial Estate, St Annes.

The committee was reminded that at their last meeting, they had agreed to defer consideration of the application pending a site visit.  The site visit took place on 15 October 2013.

The report included the views of the County Council's Assistant Director (Highways), the Environment Agency and details of four letters of representation received. 

The Deputy Group Head, Development Management, presented a PowerPoint presentation showing an aerial view of the site and the nearest residential properties. The committee was also shown photographs of the site and the access road.

An additional condition was proposed as follows:

7.   All doors to the building shall remain closed except to allow vehicular

and pedestrian access to the building.

Reason: To protect the amenities of the area and to conform with policy DM2 of the Lancashire Minerals and Waste Local Development Framework Site Allocations and Development Management Policies DPD.

Following concerns raised by the Members in relation to residential amenity, it was proposed to amend Condition 3 to the planning permission to further restrict the hours of working on Saturday as follows:

3.  No receipt or export of metals, waste processing, bulking up and loading activities shall take place outside the hours of:

08.00 to 17.00 hours, Mondays to Fridays (except Public Holidays)

09.00 to 13.00 hours on Saturdays (except Public Holidays)

No receipt or export of metals, waste processing, bulking up and loading activities shall take place at any time on Sundays or Public Holidays.

This condition shall not, however, operate so as to prevent the carrying out, outside these hours, of essential repairs to plant and machinery used on site.

Resolved: That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in the report to the committee with amendments to condition 3 and the inclusion of an additional condition as set out above.

A report was presented on an application for the change of use of an existing building to an end of life vehicle de-pollution and breaking area and use of adjoining land for ancillary storage at Unit 6, Highgate, Tarleton.

The report included the views of West Lancashire Borough Council, the Environment Agency and details of one letter of representation received.

The Group Head, Development Management, presented a PowerPoint presentation showing an aerial view of the site and the nearest residential properties. The committee was also shown photographs of the unit and the approach road.

It was reported that the County Council's Assistant Director (Highways) had raised no objection in principle to the application.  It was noted that Highgate, an existing private access road off Hesketh Lane (C142) was classified as a secondary distributor road with a speed limit of 30mph. It was therefore considered that the proposed development would have a negligible impact on highway safety and highway capacity in the immediate vicinity of the site.

Following questions to the officers by the Members, it was agreed that the hours of operation as applied for by the applicant, be included as an additional condition to the planning permission as follows:

No vehicles shall be delivered to the site, decommissioned or residual materials removed from the site outside the hours of:

08.00 to 18.00 hours, Mondays to Fridays (except Public Holidays)

08.00 to 14.00 hours on Saturdays (except Public Holidays)

No vehicles shall be delivered to the site, decommissioned or residual materials removed from the site at any time on Sundays or Public Holidays.

This condition shall not, however, operate so as to prevent the carrying out, outside these hours, of essential repairs to plant and machinery used on site.

Reason:  To safeguard visual amenity, ground and surface water quality and to protect the amenity of adjacent land users and to comply with Policy DM2 of the Joint Lancashire Minerals and Waste Local Plan Site Allocation and Development Plan Policies DPD.

Resolved: That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in the report to the committee and the inclusion of the additional condition as set out above.

A report was presented on an application for the construction of a temporary compound including the siting of ten demountable units, topsoil storage and car parking area in association with the Heysham M6 Link Road at Halton Army Training Camp, Halton Road, Lancaster.

The report included the views of Lancaster City Council, the County Council's Assistant Director (Highways) and details of one letter of representation received.

The Group Head presented a PowerPoint presentation showing an aerial view of the site and the nearest residential properties. The committee was also shown photographs of the proposed site.

Resolved: That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in the report to the committee.

A report was presented on an application for the provision of a farm access track and sheet pile protection in association with the proposed Heysham to M6 Link, at the proposed milestone canal bridge at Lancaster Canal, north of Hammerton Hall Bridge. Lancaster

The report included the views of Slyne-with-Hest Parish Council, the Environment Agency and Natural England. The views of Lancaster City Council were reported orally.

The Group Head presented a PowerPoint presentation showing an aerial view of the site and the nearest residential properties. The committee was also shown an illustration of the application site including the location of the access track and the sheet pile protection.

Resolved: That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in the report to the committee.

A report was presented on an application for the construction of a three storey youth zone building including outdoor sports provision with floodlighting and a 4m high ball stop fence, external storage facilities and construction of a new highway to facilitate access at Bow Lane, Preston.

The report included the views of Preston City Council, the Environment Agency, the County Council's Assistant Director (Highways), Specialist Advisor (Ecology), Specialist Adviser (Archaeology) and details of one letter of representation received.

The Deputy Group Head presented a PowerPoint presentation showing an aerial view of the site and the nearest residential properties. The committee was also shown photographs of the site and illustrations of the proposed development from various aspects.

The Deputy Group Head reported that the Assistant Director (Highways) had confirmed that there was no longer a requirement for the applicant to make a financial contribution to deliver a travel plan.

Officers responded to questions raised by the members in respect of the design of the building, transport links to the site and the outdoor sports provision. In respect of the latter it was agreed that Condition 5 of the planning permission be amended to restrict the use of the outdoor pitches from 9.00 to 21:00 hours on Sundays as follows:

5.  The use of the building authorised by this permission shall not take place outside the hours of:

  08.00 and 22.00 hours, Mondays to Sundays

The use of the sports pitches authorised by this permission shall not take place outside the hours of:

  08.00 and 22.00 hours, Mondays to Saturdays

  09.00 and 21.00 hours on Sundays

Reason: to safeguard the amenity of local residents and adjacent properties/landowners and land users and to conform with Policy H5 of the Preston City Local Plan.

It was also agreed that officers would write to the applicant requesting further details of energy efficiency measures to be employed in the building design.

Resolved: That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in the report to the committee with the amendment to condition 5 above.

It was reported that since the last meeting of the Development Control Committee on the 4 September, four planning applications has been granted planning permission by the Executive Director for Environment in accordance with the Council's Scheme of Delegation.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of urgent business.

The next meeting of the Development Control Committee will be held on

Wednesday 27 November 2013 at 10.00 a.m. in Cabinet Room B - The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.

Resolved: It was noted that the next meeting of the committee would be held on Wednesday 27 November 2013 at 10.00 a.m. at County Hall, Preston.