Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director Planning – Community Development Services

The Assistant Director Planning – Community Development Services sought determination of an application for continued commercial use (Class E) or new drinking establishment use (Sui Generis) of basement, lower ground floor and part of upper ground floor; change of use of upper floors (including part of upper ground floor) from commercial use (Class E), and erection of rooftop extensions, to create a total of 34 apartments (Class C3); external alterations including removal and replacement of canopies and shop fronts, repairs (and replacement where necessary) to slate roof and windows in the early 20th century elements of the building, and removal and re-cladding of the facades of the 1960s elements of the building and replacement of all windows to those 1960s elements of the building on land at 22-30 Parliament Street, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 2RQ.

The application had been referred to the Planning Committee because it was considered to raise significant planning issues such that it was appropriate to be considered by the Committee.

Providing an update to their report, the Principal Planning Officer advised Members on a number of minor changes to the conditions since publication of the committee report, as follows.

·       Condition 8 contained a typing error and should read, all rainwater goods, and not all rainwater good, as within the report.

·       Condition 10 regarding details of the windows had been updated at b) to clarify the scale of the elevations, sections and plans, which would be required at a scale of 1:5, of the proposed secondary glazing system to existing windows, including those identified in part a) of this condition above.

·       At Condition 11 the scale for the shopfronts and canopies had been clarified at a) All new/replacement shop fronts, including details of their materials, glazing and colour(s) (at least 1:10 scale); at b) All new/replacement canopies, including details of their materials, glazing and colour(s) (at least 1:5 scale); and at c) Any awnings proposed to any part(s) of the building (at least 1:5 scale).  The wording of the final paragraph of Condition 11 had been amended to read “The commercial and/or drinking establishment use hereby permitted shall not commence or be first occupied or brought into use until the parts of the development specified in parts a), b) and c) of this condition have been carried out and completed in accordance with the details thereby approved. Those works shall be retained as such thereafter”.

·       Condition 12 had been amended in order to clarify the required scale of the plans referred to (at least 1:20 scale).

·       The wording “or be occupied or brought into use” had been added twice at Condition 13, in both instances to clarify that the commercial and/or drinking establishment use hereby permitted ‘shall not commence or be occupied or brought into use’ until the relevant requirements of the condition have been met.

·       Condition 14 related to the communal areas, the first sentence of the condition remained unchanged from that which was contained in the Committee report.  The remainder of the condition had been amended to read that “none of the apartments hereby permitted shall be first occupied or brought into use until all security and crime prevention measures relating to communal areas associated with the apartments (including the communal entrance to the apartments and the car park entrance) have been installed in accordance with the details thereby approved. No individual apartment shall be first occupied or brought into use until any apartment-specific security and crime and prevention measures for that apartment have been installed in accordance with the details thereby approved. All such measures shall be retained and maintained as such thereafter”.

·       Condition 15 regarding the reporting of unexpected land contamination, the word “any” had been added to the wording in brackets in the first paragraph, so that it would now reads ‘(save for any site investigation works)’.

·       At Condition 18 the wording “at the nearest residential receptor (which, for the avoidance of doubt, shall include any existing residential receptors and any of the apartments which are hereby permitted)” had been added at the end of the first paragraph, before the bullet points.

·       At Condition 20 the wording “Those refuse storage areas shall be retained in accordance with those details thereafter” had been added at the end of the first paragraph.

·       The wording of Condition 24 had been updated to read “The disposal of waste bottles into external receptacles shall not take place outside the hours of 0730-1800 hours Monday to Friday inclusive”.

·       Condition 29 had been updated; “no part of the development” had been amended to read “none of the residential apartments” in the first and last paragraph, with regard to the timescales within which the relevant requirements must be met.

·       Condition 30 had been revised to show that the on-site car parking spaces would be solely for the use of the residential apartments with the following wording added, “The on-site car parking spaces shall be used solely in association with the residential apartments hereby permitted and shall not be used in association with the commercial/drinking establishment use hereby permitted”.

·       At Condition 31, the Travel Plan only related to the apartments, therefore the wording “no part of the development” had been amended to read “none of the residential apartments”.  The word ‘residential’ had also been added to the last paragraph to make it clear that the Full Travel Plan ‘shall continue to be operated as long as any part of the residential development hereby permitted is occupied’.

Members were advised that in terms of the S106, discussions had taken place between Council officers and the agent for the applicant and triggers for the contributions had been proposed as follows:- The secondary school, off-site open space and healthcare contributions had all been agreed at 25% of each of the agreed amounts paid prior to commencement of development, a further 50% of each to be provided prior to first occupation of the 15^th apartment, with the remaining 25% of each to be paid before the 25^th apartment was occupied.  The Travel Plan Monitoring one off fee would be paid prior to first occupation of any of the apartments, and the Section 106 monitoring fee would be paid at commencement of development.

The Principal Planning Officer highlighted that the Healthcare contribution showed a minimum and maximum amount, the subject was still under discussion, and a final amount had yet to be agreed, however the amount would be within the range shown at table 1 of the committee report.  Officers recommended that the decision be delegated to officers to agree the final amount.

An update was provided on the proposed solar photovoltaic (PV) panels; a condition had been recommended within the report which required further details of the proposed PV panels to be submitted and approved before they were installed.  The officer advised Members that no further information was available at this stage as the panels were not fully designed, however after speaking with the Conservation Officer       they had confirmed that they were satisfied that Condition 38 which had already been suggested in the committee report covered the matter.

Members heard that Councillor Haslam had submitted a list of queries prior to the meeting to the officer regarding whether electric vehicle charging was to be provided, if there would be security for cycle parking, the potential increase in surface water with the frequency and intensity of rainfall in the future, taking into account climate change, and the possibility of earlier opening hours for the retail and drinking units.  The officer explained that they understood that the six car parking spaces would all have electric charging points and that the cycle parking would be within the basement car park, access to which would be controlled. 

In terms of surface water, the officer explained that it was their understanding, having spoken with the lead local flood authority, that as the application was for the extension and conversion of an existing building there was no requirement to provide betterment over and above what the existing situation was.  The officer had also spoken with Yorkshire Water regarding any increase in foul water discharge from the site and understood from Yorkshire Water that there would be an increase, but that the amount would be negligible in the context of the size of the sewer. 

Finally, in relation to the opening hours of the retail and drinking units, the officer informed Members that the Environmental Health team had advised that an 8 am opening time was a standard condition as the guidelines for acceptable noise levels were different for daytime hours and nighttime hours, with the changeover from daytime to nighttime being 7 am.  Therefore, if staff were in the building preparing to open for the day prior to 8 am, it would not run into the 7 am bracket, however if the opening hour was 7 am then staff could potentially be in the unit prior to the changeover hour.  Members noted that an individual occupier could, in the future, apply to the Council to vary these hours, should they wish to.

In concluding the officer presentation, the Principal Planning Officer reminded Members that a final amount had not been agreed for the S106 Healthcare contribution, therefore the officer’s recommendation had been amended from grant the application to a minded to grant with the decision to be delegated to the Assistant Director for Planning.

The applicant’s agent, Emma Bilton, spoke in support of the application.

During consideration of the above application, the Committee discussed the following

issues:

·       As the application was for 34 residential apartments, with just six parking spaces, what were the arrangements in place for those six spaces.

·       If fire safety for the building would be covered at a later stage of the development.

·       Whether officers had factored in the increase of wheelie bins to each household in the new North Yorkshire Council refuse bin policy.

·       Members queried where the water was fed from to provide water to the green space in the centre of the development, as it was felt that this would be an opportunity to capture water at the site to recycle.

·       It was queried if there were strict guidelines for the installation of Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. 

·       Was it within the remit of the Planning Committee to restrict the sale of the apartments to permanent residential homes, as opposed to them being used for Airbnb rental properties.

·       Members thanked the officer for a very comprehensive report and commented that the development was a splendid example of what could be achieved when the Council and external organisations worked together, and it was hoped that similar schemes would come to fruition in the future.

The Decision

That members were MINDED TO GRANT planning permission in principle and delegated the decision to the Assistant Director Planning – Community and Development Services to grant, subject to final agreement of the healthcare contribution, the conditions detailed in Section 12 of the committee report, as amended and outlined in the officer presentation, and subject to prior completion of the S106 agreement.

Voting Record

A vote was taken, and the motion was declared carried unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 3.01 pm for a comfort break, and reconvened at 3.04 pm.