Planning Meeting Minutes
held on Monday 1st April 2019 at 7:00pm in the Caudwell Day Centre, Gravel Lane, Drayton, OX144HF
Present:
- Richard Williams (Chairman)
- Matthew Lowy (Vice Chairman)
- Colin Arnold
- Patricia Athawes
- Richard Wade
Not Present:
- Richard Wade
- Christopher Price (Deputy Clerk and meeting administrator)
In attendance:
- Lorraine Watling (Parish Clerk)
Public:
4 members of the public were present.
16/2019 Apologies for Absence.
- Richard Wade
- Christopher Price (Deputy Clerk).
17/2019 Declarations of Interest, Dispensations and Use of Delegated Powers.
None.
18/2019 Public Participation.
3 members of the public expressed their serious concerns about planning application P19/V0639/FUL. These were taken into account when the Cllrs considered this planning application later in the meeting. It was also noted that of the 5 letters sent by the Planning Dept. of the District Council to residents living in the vicinity of the application, 3 of these letters had been sent to people who were associated with the planning application under consideration.
19/2019 Minutes of the Previous Parish Council Planning Meetings
were confirmed with no amendments. Richard Williams signed the minutes as a correct record.
- Proposed: Colin Arnold
- Seconded: Matthew Lowy
- Resolved: Unanimous
20/2019 New Planning Applications.
It was agreed to authorise the Clerk/Deputy Clerk to comment to the VWHDC with Support/Respond/Object to the following planning applications, with reasons or comments agreed at the meeting, in accordance with material planning considerations and the Drayton NDP planning policies.
P19/V0527/HH.
Single storey rear extension. 3 Close End, Drayton, Abingdon, Oxon.
PC:
Unable to comment at present as the wrong plans had been sent with the planning application. The Clerk will request an extension in time to enable the DC to send out the correct plans and enable the Committee to consider this application when it next meets.
P19/V0555/HH.
Conversion of roof space existing bungalow into an additional bedroom with shower room, with new dormer window to rear elevation. 8 Whitehorns Way, Drayton, Abingdon, Oxon.
PC: No objection.
- Proposed: Pat Athawes
- Seconded: Colin Arnold
- Resolved: Unanimous
P19/V0587/HH.
Proposed new front porch incorporating a new ground floor WC. 3 Lockway, Drayton, Abingdon, Oxon.
PC: No objection.
- Proposed: Pat Athawes
- Seconded: Richard Williams
- Resolved: Unanimous
P19/V0604/HH & P19/V0605/LB.
Demolition of existing garage, proposed new rear extension and new double garage. 3 Church Lane, Drayton, Abingdon, Oxon.
PC: No objection.
- Proposed: Richard Williams
- Seconded: Matthew Lowy
- Resolved: Unanimous
P19/V0639/FUL.
Extensions to retail store and 3 new dwellings. 40 Abingdon Road, Drayton, Oxon.
PC: Objection on the following grounds:
- Parking issues arising from the reduced space for deliveries to the shop and because there would be insufficient parking to meet the needs of occupants of the proposed accommodation.
- Size and scale. The development is oversized and out of scale with the surrounding buildings. The flats would overlook the neighbours. The proposed dwellings would also cause a lack of light for some of the neighbours.
- Proposed: Pat Athawes
- Seconded: Matthew Lowy
- Resolved: Unanimous
[Clerks note: See Appendix A for full comment.]
21/2019 Date of the next Meeting.
13th May 2019 at approx. 9pm – immediately after the Annual Parish Council and regular monthly Parish Council meeting in the Caudwell Day Centre.
The Chairman declared the meeting closed at 7:30pm
Signed:…………………………..
Name:…………………………..
Date: 13th March 2019.
Appendix A
Response to Planning Application No: P19/V0639/FUL
40 Abingdon Road, Drayton, OX14 4HP: Extensions to retail store and 3 new dwellings.
Summary of Response.
Drayton Parish Council OBJECTS to this application and recommends that VWHDC rejects the application for the reasons outlined below:
1 Preamble.
This site has been the subject of a number of amicable discussions between the Parish Council, the Drayton Neighbourhood Plan group, and the applicant. Most of these discussions took place at a time when the applicant sought only to extend the size of the retail store. His proposal to add a residential component came later, and although informal conversations did take place with the parish as to how these plans could be made to work, nothing was resolved. The Parish Council was not consulted at all about the application in its current iteration.
2 Parking.
The problem is that this site is a far from ideal location for a retail store. It is located on the junction of a main road (the B4017, Abingdon Road) and a residential road (Henleys Lane). Parking facilities are minimal, and delivery lorries and customers’ cars frequently cause an obstruction by parking half on the shop front apron and half on the main road. At peak periods this can cause lengthy hold-ups as it leaves insufficient space for 2-way traffic on the Abingdon Road. People also park in Henleys Lane, some for short periods while visiting the shop; but others park for much longer periods and sometimes overnight. This causes obstruction to drivers coming out of Henleys Lane on to the main road. Drivers who park on the south side of Henleys Lane can also make it difficult for residents living on the north side to get out of their driveways with their own vehicles. When the applicant’s plan was confined to extending the store, the Parish Council was initially sympathetic. It was felt that a partial extension at the rear of the premises could possibly be combined with increased parking space if modifications were made to the existing car park at the side. The possibility of providing hard standing parking on the south side of Henleys Lane on part of the adjacent CALA housing site was also considered. However, a satisfactory solution to the raised level of the existing car park and the wall abutting it could not be found, and it became apparent that the hard standing parking was never going to be viable. CALA would not fund it (and probably would not even permit it) and the Parish Council could not afford to provide it. If adequate parking facilities could not be provided, it was hard to see how the store extension project could be progressed. The addition of residential accommodation simply compounds all the problems. The proposal to create 4 parking spaces at the side of the premises on the existing parking area will not be sufficient. Even if we suppose that the occupants of the 4 flats possess only one car per flat, (which cannot be assumed these days), they will obviously have friends who come to visit. The only place that visitors will be able to park is in Henleys Lane, and as the neighbours have pointed out in their submission, this will push parking further and further back down an already narrow lane. On parking and traffic safety grounds alone, this development is just not acceptable.
3 Size and Scale.
The development is clearly oversized and out of scale with the surrounding buildings. The extension southwards of the building line of the shop will, as the occupants of No 1a Henleys Lane point out, obscure their view westwards along the Lane. The flats will overlook the garden of this property and also that of No 42 Abingdon Road. This will block some of the light into both gardens, and the proposed balcony at the back of the flats will cause obvious overlooking issues and invasion of privacy. All of the concerns raised by both these immediate neighbours appear to the Parish Council to be entirely legitimate and justified.
4 A Possible Solution.
The Parish Council originally engaged with the applicant over his plans to extend his shop because they felt that Drayton is poorly served by retail premises at present, and an expanded grocery store would be able to extend its current stock to include a range of fresh foods – fruit and vegetables etc. As indicated though, the site itself was always a potential stumbling block. However, earlier this year, an application was received by the PC to build an additional 10 new houses south of the High St in Drayton (Application No. P19/V0001/O). The application proposed the demolition of an existing retail premises (a furniture showroom and offices, recently closed) on the part of the site which fronts the High Street. The Planning Officer’s pre-application advice included the following paragraph: I note the proposal includes the loss of employment land due to the demolition of the “vacant retail and storage buildings and office building described as ‘The Sitting Room’ and ‘Norrington Offices’.” The Vale Council’s Business and Innovation Strategy Action Plan 2017 to 2020 highlights the lack of available, good quality and affordable workspaces in the district. Specifically, there is a lack of ‘move on’ space to accommodate rapidly growing micro and small businesses. Due to this demand, I would expect a full application to include evidence that the office space/building has been proactively marketed and there is no current demand for it. He adds: For the reasons outlined above, I would not look to support the proposed application due to the loss of employment land. If progressed to a full application, consideration should be given to providing evidence of the lack of demand for the retail and office buildings. In fact, the Parish Council supported the application, responding as follows: DPC endorses the comments made by the planning officer and would like to make it clear that its support for the application is conditional on a serious and credible effort being made to secure the current retail site for future retail use. The Parish Council sees this site as a genuine opportunity to provide something currently lacking in the village – a grocery store large enough to provide a range of fresh foods as well as the usual fare found in smaller stores. We would look to attract the Co-op or a similar type of business. There is room on the site to provide a decent amount of car-parking, and it is noted that the Co-op store in Steventon does have parking facilities, but they are fairly limited. The site is located near to the centre of the village, providing convenient access for the maximum number of residents. Obviously if such a business were established, this would have an effect on the two shops in Drayton that currently sell groceries, the Post Office, and the Mace shop on the corner of Henleys Lane and Abingdon Rd. However, the parking arrangements at both these shops are far from satisfactory, and regularly lead to obstructive parking on the street, by customers and delivery vans alike. Furthermore, a Co-op store in the village might reduce the need for trips into Abingdon, bearing in mind that the B 4017 is getting increasingly congested in peak periods, and that those peak periods appear to be extending further and further into the morning. Before 9am, and often up to 10am or later, the 2 miles to Ock Street can take 30 minutes or more to drive. The above response hopefully speaks for itself. The Parish Council does not know whether there would be commercial interest in this proposal, but it would actually welcome a small supermarket located on the south of the High St site. It would appear that the Planning Officer might be disposed to approve such a usage also. In short, the situation has moved on, and with this in mind, the Parish Council believe that the answer to the application for No 40 Abingdon Road could be to relocate the current shop to the High Street. If the present shop premises were then converted wholly to residential use, this could allow a more creative solution to the parking problem (e.g. flats above a ground floor car park). Obviously this suggestion is speculative only at this stage, but if the applicant is interested in re-location, then the PC would encourage him to pursue the idea.