Agenda item

To consider the planning application and recommendations of the Chief Executive (copy enclosed, Members’ Update to be circulated)*.

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive on this planning application.  Following the Officer’s presentation of the report, Mr S Rowe, the Agent, addressed the Committee.

Councillor H M Bass, a Ward Member, advised the Committee that he had called this application in.  Whilst he accepted the Officer’s reasons for refusal, this application did have green credentials and there were personal circumstances behind the application. 

Councillor D M Sismey was of the opinion that the Council should support the philosophy behind this application – i.e. a daughter moving back to the area and in to a large property and her mother moving in to a smaller property on the same land as the donor property.  He then proposed that this application be approved contrary to the Officers’ recommendation.  This was duly seconded.

The Group Manager for Planning Services advised that if Members were minded to approve this application, then he had concerns both about allowing a property in a garden and placing a dwelling at the rear of an existing dwelling.

Upon a vote, the motion failed.  Councillor H M Bass then proposed refusal of this application in accordance with the Officers’ recommendation.  This was duly seconded and agreed.

RESOLVED that this application be REFUSED for the following reasons:

1.         The provision of a dwelling on this site, would fail to protect or enhance the natural beauty, tranquility, amenity and traditional quality of the rural landscape setting by introducing unacceptable built form into the site that currently forms an integral part of, and contributes to, the rural quality of the area. The proposal would therefore fail to make a positive contribution to the locality and cause an unacceptable degree of harm to the character and appearance of the locality.  Furthermore, in the absence of an Arboricultural Impact Assessment, the Local Planning Authority is unable to fully consider the impact of the development upon existing trees within and adjacent to the site, contrary to policies S2, BE1, H1, CC6 and CC7 of the adopted Maldon District Replacement Local Plan, emerging policy S1, S8, H4, D1, D2 and N2 of the Local Development Plan and core planning principles and guidance contained in the National Planning Policy Framework.

2.         The site is not considered to be in a sustainable location. Therefore, the creation of new residential development, remote from community services and essential support facilities, would be contrary to the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ contained in the National Planning Policy Framework and to policy S2 of the adopted Maldon District Replacement Local Plan. The poor sustainability credentials of the site and its locality, coupled with the impact of development on the character and appearance of the rural locality, would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the proposal when assessed against the compliant policies of the Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework as a whole.