Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for non-attendance were received from Councillors Jennie Bone, Ken Harrington and Steven North.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2024 were received.

It was proposed by Councillor Irwin and seconded by Councillor L Lawman that the minutes be approved, subject to it being noted that Councillor G Lawman’s declaration was as a councillor with North Northamptonshire Council not the Borough Council of Wellingborough.

RESOLVED that the minutes of 18 September 2024 be approved and signed as a correct record.

The chair asked members if they wished to declare any interests on an item listed on the agenda, or if they had carried out independent site visits.

The chair declared a collective interest on behalf of all members of the planning committee in relation to  item NE/24/00661/FUL as the applicant was an officer of the council and was known to members.

Councillor L Lawman made a declaration as she was the ward councillor for Mears Ashby and the applicant for NE/24/00324/FUL was known to her, and she was coming to the meeting with an open mind.

Councillor Jackson confirmed that he had visited each site. 

The committee considered an application for retrospective change of use from Agricultural Barn to B8 (Storage distribution) and associated outside area to B8 (storage or distribution) (amended description) details of which were set out in the Senior Development Control Officer’s report.

The Senior Development Management Officer, Debbie Kirk, presented the report to committee, detailing the proposal, full description of the site, the planning history, relevant planning priorities, outcome of consultations and assessment of the proposal.

It was recommended that planning permission be granted, subject to the conditions contained in the report.

Requests to address the meeting had been received from Alan Perkins, an objector and Sean Bennett, acting as agent. The chair permitted each to speak for three minutes.

In summary Mr Perkins, expressed his concern over potential blocking of access to his property which was located via a track to the side of the barn at the rear, with the access way to Glebe Road being shared. and how this could potentially affect his property.

Mr Bennett was in favour of the application, and clarified that under the joint core strategy, the application supported rural diversification as it was re-use of a rural building. There was no change to the design of the barn and the hours of operation had been limited to ensure as little disruption as possible. There was a large area in the front of the barn for a vehicle to park and to turn around and to avoid blocking the adjacent access way. It was expected that vehicles would exit the site in a forward gear and would not reverse onto the highway.

The chair invited members to ask questions of clarity.

The committee asked what was being stored in the barn. Mr Bennett responded to say it was used to store catering business items.

A further question was asked about the shared driveway and Mr Bennett confirmed there was one wide access point with access to both the barn and a track to the side of the barn which led to the house and business at the rear. There was enough room for a vehicle with a trailer to access the parking area and to also turn around to enable it to leave the site safely without disruption to the adjacent property.

For the purpose of debate and in accordance with the council’s constitution, meeting procedure rules 19.2 and 19.21 the vice-chair moved the recommendation that planning permission be granted subject to the conditions listed in paragraph 11 of the report. This was seconded by Councillor L Lawman.

The chair invited the committee to debate the proposed application.

Councillor A Mercer proposed that a further condition be added as follows:

“Any vehicle leaving the site should do so in a forward direction”.

The Interim Planning Management and Enforcement Lead Manager, Jasbir Sandhu, advised the committee that this would be unreasonable and unenforceable and would not meet the planning condition tests.

Councillor Mercer made the point that B8 consent may not be restricted to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The committee considered an application to demolish a garage and storage building and replace with a garage and storage structure with playroom above.

Erika Davies, Assistant Development Officer, presented the report to committee, detailing the proposal, description of the site, planning history, relevant planning policies, outcome of the consultations and assessment of the policy.  She explained that the report was being presented to committee as the applicant was a current tier 4 officer and a council employee.

It was recommended that planning permission be granted subject to conditions listed in paragraph 11 of the report.

There were no speakers for this item.

For the purpose of debate and in accordance with the council’s constitution, meeting procedure rules 19.2 and 19.21 the chair moved the recommendation that planning permission be granted subject to the conditions listed in paragraph 11 of the report.  This was seconded by Councillor L Lawman.

The chair invited the committee to debate the proposed application.

The committee question reference at 7.4.2 of the report that there was an additional bedroom within the proposed building.  Officers clarified that the playroom could be used as bedroom. A question over access to the playroom was raised as there was no evidence of a staircase. Officers clarified that the site is graduated, and access was to the rear of the garage at ground level. A question was also raised about the number of off-road parking places there would be on the site as on-road parking was limited. The exact number was not known but officers commented that it was a spacious site.   

There being no further comments the chair referred to the motion, which had been proposed and seconded, that planning permission be granted subject to the conditions at paragraph 11 of the report.

On being put to the vote the motion was declared carried.

Resolved that planning permission be granted, subject to the conditions listed at paragraph 11 of the report.

There being no further business the chair thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting at 7.50pm.

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