Agenda and minutes

Councillor M. Elliott declared a personal interest in application RB2017/0066 (erection of dwellinghouse at land to the rear of 1 The Beeches, Worksop Road, Swallownest) on the grounds that this application had been brought up at his Ward Surgery.  He left the room and took no part in the discussion nor observed the vote.

Councillor Jarvis declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in application RB2017/0262 (erection of a three storey education building at former Rotherham Hospital, Doncaster Gate, Rotherham Town Centre) on the grounds of part time employment through an agency with Rotherham College of Arts and Technology.  She remained in the room to observe the vote and discussion, but took no part in the discussion or vote.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Planning Regulatory Board held on Thursday, 20^th April, 2017, be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

There were no site visits nor deferments recommended.

Resolved:- (1) That, on the development proposals now considered, the requisite notices be issued and be made available on the Council’s website and that the time limits specified in Sections 91 and 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 apply.

In accordance with the right to speak procedure, the following people attended the meeting and spoke about the following applications:-

-       Erection of a dwellinghouse at land to the rear of 1 The Beeches, Worksop Road, Swallownest for Mr. D. Lanera (RB2017/0066)

        Mr. D. Milner (Objector)

        Mr. S. Carney (Objector)

-              Application to vary condition 09 (car park controls – to allow new car park management measures to be introduced) imposed by application RB2011/1768 at corner of Nottingham Street/Drummond Street, Rotherham Town Centre for Tesco Stores Ltd. (RB217/0245)

Ms. A. Henderson (on behalf of the applicant)

Mr. R. Baguely (supporter)

-              Erection of a three storey education building at former Rotherham Hospital, Doncaster Gate, Rotherham Town Centre for RNN Group (RB2017/0262)

        Mr. Towey (Objector)

(2) That application RB2016/1130 be granted for the reasons adopted by Members at the meeting and subject to the relevant conditions listed in the submitted report.

(3) That application RB2017/0066 be granted for the reasons adopted by Members at the meeting and subject to the relevant conditions listed in the submitted report and subject to a further condition being included:-

Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (or any Order revoking and re-enacting that Order with or without modification), the premises shall be used for C3 (Dwellinghouse) purposes only and no change of use to C4 (House in Multiple Occupation) shall be permitted.

Reason

In order to assess any proposed use of the property within Class C4, in the interests of the amenities of neighbouring residents.

(4) That application RB2017/0245 be granted for the reasons adopted by Members at the meeting and subject to the relevant conditions listed in the submitted report.  A further letter of objection, received after the publication of the agenda papers, was read out at the meeting.

(5) That application RB2017/0262 be granted for the reasons adopted by Members at the meeting and subject to the relevant conditions listed in the submitted report, with the amendment to condition number 2 by the correction of the approved plan date from 03001 to 02001 and an amendment to condition number 22 to now read:-

“Prior to the commencement of development all subsoils/topsoils imported to site for soil capping works shall be tested at a rate and frequency to be agreed with the Local Planning Authority to ensure they are free from contamination. The results of testing thereafter shall be presented to the Local Planning Authority in the format of a Validation Report. The development shall be undertaken in accordance with the agreed details.”

Consideration was given to the report which sought to inform Members of the current performance in relation to Development Management (DM) and the processing of planning applications.

As part of the continuous improvement programme, Development Management had consistently surpassed these figures. The aim was to continue to set high performance standards to ensure that the service was efficient, accountable and reflects the desire to ensure performance is comparable to other top performing planning teams in the Country. 

Rotherham’s planning performance on all three application types, has exceeded targets for this year.  This represented a significant achievement across all three application types and demonstrated that the improvement measures incorporated into the daily workflow and the benefits of a fully electronic document management system continued to have a positive effect.

It was important that performance was maintained and monitored to ensure targets were achieved as the Government had introduced penalties for low performance by introducing measures which would require a refund of planning fees, should applications not be determined within a 26 week period. 

The Government has also confirmed the introduction of the Planning Performance Guarantee and ‘Special Measures Designation’ enabling developers to bypass a Council and apply directly to the Planning Inspectorate for planning permission where that local authority had a track record of either poor performance in decision making or not acting positively to promote economic growth within its area. 

The Government would also introduce further quality measures in 2018 against appeals.  The threshold would be 10% decisions (as a total number of decisions on all applications made during the assessment period) being overturned at appeal.  A two year assessment period ending March, 2017 would be used for designation decisions in 2018.

The new Housing and Planning Bill included the provision for the processing of planning applications to be undertaken within a competitive environment.  This would potentially open up the opportunity for private individuals, local firms and neighbouring Local Planning Authorities to compete to process planning applications within Rotherham. There were significant implications of this which would have to be considered, but maintaining a Planning Service as an efficient and customer focussed function would minimise any risk.

The Service had been recognised by the Planning Advisory Service who named Rotherham as one of the ten top performing Local Planning Authorities nationally. Going forward the aim of the service was to continue to improve and offer a good level of service to customers.

Resolved:-  That the report be received and the contents noted.

The following update information was provided:-

Further to Minute No. 75(4) of the meeting of the Planning Board held on 30^th March, 2017, following the decision to dispose to grant planning permission in respect of application RB2015/1530 which was development in the Green Belt, the application was referred to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as a departure from the Development Plan.

As a local Member of Parliament had subsequently written to the Secretary of State expressing his support for the application, this application would now be subject to Minister approval, but consideration would be delayed due to the calling of a General Election on the 8^th June, 2017.