Agenda item

The list of planning applications to be considered at the meeting is appended.

An agenda variance was requested to allow planning application P/23/0805/2 (Limehurst Avenue, Loughborough) to be considered first, which was agreed by the Chair and the Committee.  This was due to Councillor Jones, who had called the application in and was speaking on the item, needing to attend a Cabinet meeting. 

The Chair drew the Committee’s attention to page 3 of the Extras Report which referred to revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).  It was anticipated that the NPPF would be published after the meeting and may potentially mean that the applications on the agenda would need to be reassessed against the new NPPF before a decision could be released.

In these circumstances it was good practice to give delegated authority to officers in consultation with the Chair of the Plans Committee to assess the impacts of the NPPF in a ‘delegated decision update report’ and, where the changes were considered to have minor or no material bearing on the decision members took, to amend the conditions (including adding/deleting conditions) as may be necessary.  The update report would be held on the public file.

If this was the case then a recommendation would need to be approved for each of the applications, that delegated authority be given to officers in consultation with the Chair of Plans Committee to amend decision notices in light of the revised version of the NPPF where these changes were minor and would not materially affect the decisions taken by Committee.  An additional recommendation for each item was therefore put forward.

Reports of the Head of Planning and Growth, setting out applications P/23/1625/2, P/22/2163/2, P/22/2227/2, P/23/0668/2 and P/23/0805/2 were submitted (item 5 on the agenda filed with these minutes).  An Extras Report in respect of applications P/23/0668/2 and P/23/0805/2 was also submitted (also filed with these minutes). 

Planning application P/23/0668/2 (Watermead Business Park, Thurmaston) was subsequently deferred (details given at the item number).

There were late requests to speak from Mr Martin Betts (applicant) in respect of application P/22/2163/2 and Ms Karen Maycock (Kingfisher Area Residents Group) in respect of application P/23/1625/2.  The Chair and members of the Committee were in agreement for these requests to be granted. 

Mr Betts had been introduced as speaking on behalf of the agent, but confirmed he was in fact the applicant and it was confirmed that Kingfisher Area Residents Group was a fully constituted group and the representative was therefore eligible to speak in lieu of there being a Parish Council in Loughborough. 

In accordance with the procedure for public speaking at meetings, the following objectors, applicants or their representatives and representatives of a parish council and a community group in Loughborough attended the meeting and expressed their views:

(i)       Mr Simon Atha (on behalf of the agent) in respect of application P/23/0805/2;

(ii)      Ms Birgitta Worrall (objector) in respect of application P/23/1625/2;

(iii)      Mr Alistair Lucking (applicant) in respect of application P/23/1625/2;

(iv)     Ms Karen Maycock (on behalf of Kingfisher Area Residents Group) in respect of application P/23/1625/2;

(v)      Mr Martin Betts (applicant) in respect of application P/22/2163/2;

(vi)     Mr Alan Carr (on behalf of Burton on the Wolds Parish Council) in respect of application P/22/2163/2;

(vii)     Mr Phil Rowland (agent) in respect of application P/22/2227/2.

In accordance with the procedure for Borough Councillors speaking at Plans Committee meetings, the following Councillors attended the meeting and expressed their views:

(i)       Councillor Jones (call-in) in respect of application P/23/0805/2;

(ii)      Councillor Cory-Lowsley (call-in) in respect of application P/23/1625/2;

(iii)      Councillor Bokor in respect of application P/22/2163/2;

(iv)     Councillor Lawrence in respect of application P/22/2227/2.