Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Yvonne Peacock, Councillor Cliff Lunn substituted.

Minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 14 April and the extraordinary meeting held on 24 April 2026.

The minutes of the meetings held on 14 and 24 April 2026 were agreed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The Chair confirmed that all Members of the committee had been lobbied.

The Solicitor reminded Members that disclosable interests may affect councillors' ability to take part in the decision-making process. In order to maintain the integrity of the planning system, councillors should consider or be careful to ensure that such interests do not unduly influence their decision or give rise to a perception of predetermination or bias in decision making. Such interests may mean that a councillor was involved with a planning application before it came to committee. Such involvement need not to bar a councillor from participating, providing the councillor had not already decided how they will vote on the matter.

Councillors should always consider carefully whether they could reasonably be seen to approach the planning merits of the application with an open mind. If a councillor considered that was not possible, they should consider withdrawing from the item. If a member of the planning committee had involvement with a group or individual campaigning for or against the application, they should advise of their involvement at the beginning of the meeting and, provided that they've not already decided how to vote, they should make a transparency statement to confirm they were of an open mind, could consider the planning application on its own merits and had not predetermined the application.

For the purposes of transparency Councillor John Cattenach advised that an objector to the application was featured on a local radio station early that day.

For the purposes of transparency Councillor John McCartney advised that a newspaper article about this site, first published several years ago and including quotes from Councillor McCartney, had been recently republished. However, he confirmed that he was attending the meeting with an open mind.

Outline application (all matters reserved) for residential development, extra-care facility, local centre, primary school, and associated infrastructure and landscaping with access from Weeland Road and Kellington Lane at land to western boundary of Eggborough, Weeland Road, Eggborough

The Head of Development Management sought determination of an outline planning application (all matters reserved) for residential development, extra-care facility, local centre, primary school and associated infrastructure and landscaping with access from Weeland Road and Kellington Lane at land to the western boundary of Eggborough, Weeland Road, Eggborough.

The application was referred to Strategic Planning Committee for determination as the application was accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Members were advised by the Head of Development Management that the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2026 came into force on 11 May 2026. The Direction required that where a local planning authority is minded to refuse planning permission for any development for 150 dwellings or more, the authority must consult the Secretary of State before issuing the decision notice. The consultation gave the Secretary of State the opportunity to decide whether to call in the application under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act. This applied to planning applications not determined before 11 May 2026.

The Principal Planning Officer advise that 3 letters of objection had been received but no new grounds of objection had been received. In addition, condition 5 and 34 had been amended to reflect the correct plan revision number following minor amendments.

The Officer then presented a detailed series of photographs and plans showing the location of application, the views of the site from various directions, the design code which set out the requirements in terms of design, character and appearance, the access parameters and planned highway improvements.

Angela Rushton spoke to object to the application.

Susan Jackson spoke on behalf of Eggborough Parish Council and Mary McCartney spoke on behalf of Kellington Parish Council.

Lee Dowson, local resident and James Seabury, applicant, spoke in support of the application.

Members questioned the Officer on a number of matters including:

·       Planning process and governance - why the application was been brought to the Strategic Planning Committee, whether correct procedures and consultation processes have been followed. Members had concerns about the lack of responses from some key consultees.

·       Affordable housing provision – Members raised strong concerns that 10% affordable housing was too low for a development of this scale and questioned the evidence base and justification for 10% vs higher targets elsewhere (e.g. 20% or 40%).

·       Housing mix and local need - concerns were raised on the balance of proposed homes, particularly the very low number of 1-bedroom properties (2%) and whether the mix reflected the local demographic need.

·       The scale and strategic impact of development - the size of the development and the implications of population growth were of concern and whether the development would respect the existing village character.

·       Transport and connectivity – Members had concerns on the impact on transport infrastructure capacity, road congestion and junction performance (especially M62 Junction 34), the adequacy of highway improvements and modelling assumptions and existing traffic safety and accident history. There were questions on public transport viability, especially the rail service frequency and potential upgrades.

·       Sustainability  ...  view the full minutes text for item 155.

There were no items of urgent business.

Tuesday, 9 June 2026 at 10.00am.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as Tuesday, 9 June 2026.