Issue - meetings

1.         The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 4(2)) concerning Planning Application 17/02772/FULC in respect of change of use of a grain storage building to B8 use class at the Grain Store, Wyld Court Farm.

2.         In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Mr David Barlow, Parish Council representative, Mr Alexander Dick, adjacent Parish Council representative, Mr George Greenham, objector, Mr Peter Danks, agent and Councillor Virginia von Celsing, speaking as Ward Member, addressed the Committee on this application.

3.         Derek Carnegie introduced the report to Members, which took account of all the relevant policy considerations and other material considerations.  He advised that the planning application had been called in to the Committee as 97 objections had been received from residents in relation to traffic congestion.  However, the report detailed that the proposal was acceptable and a conditional approval was justifiable.

4.         Paul Goddard was invited to make a comment on the highways matters.  He advised that the facility was currently being used as a grain store that could accommodate one thousand tonnes, with access to the site from the B4009.  The sight lines to the left of the site were substandard, but whether this was an issue depended on vehicle movements.  Highways officers had had difficulty in calculating the traffic that the change in usage would generate.

5.         The applicant had advised that the grain store with dryer could be used twice a year, with some 130 fifteen tonne tractor and trailers delivering the grain to the store and larger 29 tonne vehicles removing the grain.  With other movements such as monitoring, there could be up to 470 vehicle movements per annum.  Consequently there were periods when there was a considerable amount of activity and others when there was no activity.  However this averaged out at one traffic movement in and out per day.  While this was much disputed by residents, there was no evidence to cast doubt on the information provided by the applicant.

6.         It was difficult to project the vehicle movements following a change to B8 usage, as it would depend what type of B8 the facilities were used for.  For example, if they were used for self-storage there would be a low level of vehicle activity.  A B8 use, similar to that of the joinery workshop already operating with B8 usage, would also be low.  On the other hand, the facilities could be used for parcel distribution with up to four heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) coming in and out of the site per day.

7.         However, the latter use was considered unlikely as such uses were usually located near the strategic road network.  It was also stressed that the size of the storage facilities should be taken into account, as they comprised two units with a total floor area of 510 square metres.  Consequently any HGVs accessing the site would not be large and frequent.

8.         Paul Goddard referred the Committee to paragraph 32 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which stated that a planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51