Transcript

Good evening and welcome to members, officers, the press and public joining the Strategic Development Committee. The meeting is being live streamed on YouTube, so welcome also to anybody joining us online, either live or after the fact. Most of our officers are joining this evening's meeting via Zoom. Those present in the chamber, hear me okay? Yes, thank you. Thank you. And those on Zoom, can you also hear me? Great, thank you. My name is Councillor Rachel Tripp. I'm the Chair of the Strategic Development Committee. Members in the room, as always, when you're speaking, can you please speak clearly and loudly so the microphone can pick up what you're saying? So joining us on Zoom, please mute your microphone if you're not speaking. And now I'm going to ask members of the committee and then officers to introduce themselves, starting with Madeline. Hello, Madeline Salipontin, Councillor for Forest Gate South and Deputy Cabinet Lead for Education. Councillor Huffington, we're representing Bolin Ward. Thank you. And officers, I'm going to suggest that you go in the order on the agenda. Hello, I'm Jane Custance. I'm the Director of Planning and Development. Going to James. Hello, James Bolt, Senior Development Manager. Hand over to Vincent. Hello, Vincent Healy, Legal Advisor. Hand over to Chloe. Hello, Chloe Tolt, Principal Planner. And now I'm over to Claire. Hi, Claire Newitt, Principal Planner. I'm just being joined by you. And Toby. And I believe that Toby, the Chair of our Design Review Panel, has just joined us. We're just in introductions, Toby, so you're just in time. Maybe fancy leaping straight in with a quick introduction. Yes, sorry, I'm having trouble with my audio. Yes, I'm Toby Johnson. I'm Chairman of the Design Review Panel. Thank you very much. I want to remind members that when we take a vote, it will be by way of raising our physical hand so that we can capture that on screen. Item number one on the agenda is apologies. We received apologies this evening from councillors Susan Masters, Blossom Young, Lewis Godfrey and Miraj Patel. And I believe at least two other members are also on their way to us at the moment, so I expect they'll be joining us late. Are we aware of any other apologies? No, Chair, it's all of them. Actually, I've said apologies from Blossom. I think although she isn't trained, so isn't yet a voting member of the committee, Blossom is on her way. We'll be observing. So I've got women this late, but not voting. Item number two is minutes. The minutes of the meeting tells on the 19th of November 2024 for approval are outlined on pages 11 to 18 of the agenda. Can we agree those as a true record? True record. Thank you. Item number three, declarations of interest. Are there any additional declarations? None. Thank you. Item number four, determining planning applications. Members are asked to note the advice from the Head of Legal Services on determining planning applications. Is that noted? Noted. Thank you. Item number five, announcements from the Chair. We've received the following requests to address the committee. On item number six, 970 Romford Road, we have Edward James. Yes, that's correct. That's great. Mr. James is here with us in the room, and I believe we're all waiting for a colleague who will also be visiting. It's Mr. James waiting for us. I'm so sorry. It's okay. Thank you very much. Item seven, Richard Addenbrook on the item for Upton Cross Primary School. Richard, are you still with us online? I am. Thank you, Chair. I'll just say we don't need to make representation. I'm just present to answer any questions from members. That's helpful to know. Thank you very much. And so in which case, in terms of how we take the business today, I'd like to ask members permission to swap around items six and seven, as we are waiting for the applicant to join us. But that would mean that we would take item seven next, which is Upton Cross Primary School, if members are in agreement. Agreed. Great. In which case, as we won't be hearing from the applicant, and we don't have supporters or objectors, could we please move to the officer report from Claire, please? Actually, before we do that, I'm so sorry. I've missed out some of the stuff that I need to do. It must be near Christmas. The usual practice is to allow up to five minutes in total for supporters and objectors. Is that agreed? Agreed. We've already agreed the remainder of the order of business. Can we please make sure that we note the officer update report? And as ever, the full consideration and planning assessment is covered comprehensively in our committee reports, which I know we've all had. And so the officer presentation would be summary of the key issues only. And so with that, Claire, if you're ready, then we will move to item seven, which is Upton Cross Primary School. We can see your screen, but we can't hear you, Claire. Can you see everyone see it OK? Yes, we can. Whenever you're ready. Thank you. Item seven relates to the Upton Cross Primary School Annex, located on Kirtan Road. Item seven relates to the Upton Cross Primary School Annex, located on Kirtan Road. This is the site location and a recent aerial photograph, though please note, the aerial photograph does pre-examination. annex located on Kirtan Road. This is the site location and a recent aerial photograph, though please note the aerial photograph does predate the temporary buildings that were put in place last year. The site lies within a built-up residential setting. It's bounded by residential streets of the north, south, east and west. The site had temporary planning permission until September 2024 for temporary buildings accommodating the Connaught Special School. The application is seeking to extend the temporary use until September 2026 due to delays in constructing the permanent replacement school. These are some of the site photographs and this shows the first photograph on the left is a view from Kirtan Road. It's of the part single part two storey temporary building and the photo on the right shows the front elevation of that temporary building. This is the site plan and I've drawn arrows to the two temporary buildings. The one on the left is the single storey temporary building. The one on the right is the single part two storey temporary building. And these are some of the floor plans and roof plans. And the elevations. The presentation will cover the matter of temporary planning permission, principal development, design, amenity and transport. The proposals to increase the length of the temporary planning permission for one to three years due to delays in constructing the permanent replacement school on the site road are considered acceptable. The proposals are supported in relation to temporary planning permission. The use of the site is for educational purposes is well established. The current development plan is supportive of providing additional educational and community facilities to ensure the current and future needs of the borough's young people are met. The building, the temporary buildings allow for pupils to continue to receive an education and specialist support and minimise disruption whilst development of the permanent Connaught special school takes place. As such, the principle of development is considered acceptable. Coming on to the urban design and placemaking. The temporary nature of the classroom buildings are constructed in materials commonly used in the composition of modular structures. And whilst the finish is not of the highest design quality, they do not detract from the buildings which already exist on site and do not have an adverse impact upon the appearance of the street scene or wider area. The buildings respect the scale of the existing built form and do not appear prominent within the context of the existing site or surrounding area. Given the temporary nature of the classroom buildings, the design is supported. Impacts to neighbouring amenity. Taking into account the scale of the main school building, the temporary buildings are considered reasonably modest in scale and retain a sufficient separation distance to neighbouring properties to ensure no adverse loss of light or overshadowing. The established boundary wall to the northern elevation of the site and mature tree lines to the south and east further reduce any potential impact in this regard. Window openings within the single storey building provide outlook into the wider school site whilst views from the window in the northern boundary are obscured by the established high boundary wall to the front of the site. No window openings are positioned within the eastern elevation of the single part two storey building and therefore there are no privacy impacts to the occupiers of Ravenhill Road. Separation distances between the classroom buildings and dwellings on Orwell Road and Curtin Road ensure that there is no adverse overlooking or loss of privacy as a result of the development. The buildings are only used during established teaching hours. The uplift in pupils accommodated on site is modest and therefore inappropriate levels of noise within the residential area are not generated when compared to the existing arrangement. Based on this the proposal is supported with regard to impact to neighbouring amenity. Transport and travel. There is no additional car parking which is supported given the respectable p-tile rating of the site and this assisting encouraging sustainable transport to and from the school. A new drop-off and pick-up facility has been introduced off Ravenhill Road to support new and send transport which the majority of pupils use to travel to the school. Additional cycle parking has been provided which exceeds London plan standards. The development is therefore supported in relation to sustainable transport. Letters were sent to the occupiers of 96 neighbouring properties. One objection was received and that's from an occupier of Curtin Road which I have marked on the plan on the screen. These objections have been addressed in full in the committee report. And lastly recommendation. Officers request that the committee resolve to agree the reasons for approval set out in the officer report and delegate authority to the director of planning to grant planning permission subject to the conditions listed in appendix one of the report. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have been joined by our colleague Councillor James Beckles who will be listening in on this application but unable to vote but participating in the next one. So Claire if I could ask you to stop sharing your screen please and we move on to questions or comments from members. I do have a couple if members are happy to help to get me to kick off. I noticed that there was only one objection. This is a question for the applicant really. Mr Addenbrooke it might be helpful to know are you from the school or from the trust or from a planning agency or I'm just thinking about the nature of the questions you may know the answer to. Okay I am the agent for the application. All right okay so you work for you're advising the school on planning matters. Yes sorry I should say we're directly appointed by the contractor who originally installed the temporary units. Okay I mean you may not be able to answer this question but my question was really having read through the objection from the neighbour I was interested to know a bit more about communication with neighbours. I know it can be really hard when construction is happening and people don't necessarily like uncertainty and disruption but some of the descriptions in the objection about them not being aware of what was happening and then being concerned about the impact obviously struck my eye as I was going through the papers. Okay I suppose my responsibility yeah I don't know the exact details of that situation however the buildings have been in place for the last 12 months I think any disruption which may have occurred would have occurred 12 months ago or possibly even more than that in the summer prior to that their installation um but I should say that there is no additional work required as part of this application it is simply a request to extend the period by which the temporary buildings are retained on site. Um yeah that's a helpful reminder thank you I suppose it's also about communicating with the neighbours about the school's plans or the trust's plans for how long those temporary buildings will stay there um it sounds like it might be outwith what you're doing but perhaps that's something you could take back to the applicants but it's always really nice to see schools making efforts to be really good neighbours with the people around them but we all need schools but they are a particular kind of usage and it would be nice to think that the nearby neighbours felt included in terms of what the plans were. Certainly I can take that back to the school um and ask them to um to try and liaise better than they have done um in terms of time scales um I have chased this up with the applicant applicant which is the department for education or the ultimate applicant department for education um the information I've got back is that due to delays with the planning approval for the permanent scheme they aren't quite in contract yet with the main contractor um so work hasn't started on the permanent scheme um but they hope at the beginning of next year that they'll be able to confirm uh the date for possession of the permanent scheme. And for clarity am I right that the current um the current temporary structures have already exceeded their initial temporary planning permission? Um they have we we actually made the application within the 12-month period from the original approval date so um our aim was to uh simply seek a variation to the application that we'd submitted previously um as the application went through validation it was given a new reference number so it ended up becoming a new a new application but the application was submitted within 12 months of the original approval of the original submission. Okay thank you um to come back to the issue with the objector um Claire I did just want to double check with you one of the things raised by the objection and again I'm aware it is only one objection which in context I think we have to give weight to um one of their objections was about overlooking and light but it did look for me as though the house wasn't actually very close to where those temporary buildings are have I misunderstood? I think that's the judgment we made is that there is sufficient distance between that temporary building and the neighbour um you've got the road the building isn't right on the boundary within the site you've got the trees along there and that's that's the sort of conclusion we came to is that there is sufficient separation. Thank you very much. Um members councillor sign content as this um I should have expressed that I do have I do have interest in this being the education lead for the education department so I will restrict my questions to structural natures um can the applicant's uh agent please explain to us what is the intended lifespan for the for these buildings when they were put up please um so originally we applied for 12 months um that was based on our understanding of how um contractual discussions were proceeding at the time um I would say obviously in view of what I just said that planning approval hadn't been obtained at that point and there were some complexities associated with the dfe entering into a contract with a contractor without planning approval um those discussions have become very protracted over the last 12 months um hence the need for the extension um I think they're taking a pragmatic view now that um they should be able to complete the permanent school within a two-year period um in fact it'll be slightly less than that because it will be September 26 in an ideal world would be where they were looking to uh to occupy um however um I can also understand that point that they can't commit to that just at this moment in time until they are actually in contract with the main contractor um I won't go into any issues about um maybe the advice that they received about the time spans for planning applications etc and how to negotiate that with the dfe but I do want to know are the buildings currently in the state where they are appropriate to remain open for maximum period of the two years application if we're talking about the condition of the buildings um they are normally designed for a significantly longer period than they will be retained on site and are they are they in a state at the moment to continue to be used or do they need a lot of maintenance um as far as I'm aware they don't need any maintenance they were new buildings 12 months ago okay so okay thank you for that thank you yeah thank you chief just getting back on to the objective really um I'm sure that the obviously it's difficult for the agent to answer the question just the line which says is the school's gone from our standing one that is having to shut down the site I'm sure what they mean by that so maybe we could get some clarification I know this could be after the decision to be made maybe you can get some clarification what they mean by that I did notice that as well and while I lingered over it I did feel like it probably wasn't really material to the planning decision we're making but perhaps I could take that and make a note to follow that up with the water that'd be good yes um I don't have any further questions or comments do either of the two members who'll be voting have any no I mean I just I just noted um from the reports the um the great weight that we're encouraged to give to um educational opportunities in the borough really so Claire is it possible sorry to share your screen again please so we can get the officer recommendation back up chair if I if I may just while that recommendation is coming up um just to remind members uh to know the committee update as well in in um reaching their vote on the uh on the resolution please thank you thank you very much so the strategic development committee is asked to resolve to agree the reasons for approval as set out in the officer report and delegate authority to the director of planning and development etc um can I ask those in favour to raise their hands please um that is unanimous thank you very much um that concludes item seven um which then brings us back to item six um which is 970 roads of road um this uh you're very welcome to stay online for the rest of the meeting particularly if you'd like to join your family um thank you for coming thanks very much for item number six um would you like to address the committee for up to five minutes or would you prefer to be available just to answer questions answer questions that's no problem um in which case we'll again move straight on to the office report from chloe thank you um can everyone see my screen we can thank you thank you um item six relates to the application site at 970 romford road the site is located on the west side of north circular road and has an area of approximately 0.5 hectares to the north of the site is a commercial gym to the west of the site are residential properties predominantly two stories in height the proposal is a reserve matters application to approve details relating to appearance and landscaping in accordance with condition one of outline planning permission for a self-storage warehouse under class b8 and associated car parking an outline planning permission was granted in 2021 for the erection of a self storage warehouse with all matters reserved except for layout scale and access key issues including the principle of development employment impact upon amenity transport and energy were considered under the outline consent conditions such as demolition and construction management plan travel plan contamination cycle parking bream designing out crime are attached to the outline consent planning obligations including employment contributions and carbon offset contributions are also secured by a section 106 agreement the key planning considerations for this reserve matters applications are compliance with the outline permission appearance landscaping flood risk in terms of compliance with outline permission the proposed development would be set well within the approved maximum parameters and is within the maximum height and extents that have already been assessed as being acceptable the number of car parking spaces will be reduced from 19 to 12 spaces in addition the number of blue badge parking spaces and cycle parking spaces will be increased from two to three and ten to twelve respectively the proposed changes are supported in the interest of promoting sustainable modes of transport a total of 168 consultation letters were sent to neighboring properties no responses were received from adjoining occupiers for the appearance um the uh the appearance of the proposed development has been refined during the course of the application the original submission proposed cladding in both colors as shown on the top right hand corner derive revised scheme with cladding mainly in gray and white is considered to be consistent with the character of other industrial users within newham the proposed development has been reviews reviewed by the design review panel chair the use of a textured cladding panel as the primary facing material is considered to provide a degree of depth relief and interest to the large surfaces of the building following the design drp chairs workshop the applicant also submitted a bream pre-assessment which confirmed that the development is expected to achieve bream excellent this would accord with the requirements of condition 8 attached to the outline permission matters relating to appearance are considered acceptable the applicant also clarified that there are no end user identified at this stage and the signages would be subject to a separate advertisement consent council landscaping six new trees hedges ornamental shrubs and evergreen ivy climbers are proposed along the western boundary of the site given its proximity to residential properties the council's design officers noted that the proposals introduced generous planting to help soften the boundary and introduce a green screen to the external areas of the site the landscaping is supported subject to conditions for flood risk management the site is located within flood zone one the submitted strategy concludes that the site is considered to be at very low risk from flooding a preliminary drainage strategy shows post-development flood risk will not be increased the application has been assessed by the lead local flood authority who has raised no objections subject to conditions the application is therefore considered acceptable in this regard the strategic development committee is asked to note the committee update and resolve to agree the reasons for approval as set out in the report and grant planning permission based on conditions listed in appendix one of the report thank you thank you very much i'll just unshare my screen in a second great thank you um so we move on to member questions or comments um that's now with four members to this item able to contribute um councillor beckles can i bring you in first thank you um first a comment or maybe two it's good that the episode is going for bream extents on that but with that comment it was slightly um almost like confusing why your visualizations if you're going for bream especially around the visualization of it if your visualization images have the builders obscured a lot and it just doesn't quite like well as we are trying to make an approval on experience it's quite hard to tell what the building's going to look like because it's you've got a mound on visualization one which is obscuring and then with visualization two you've got i guess the green wall obscuring what the building actually looks to make and drp have looked at it so i'm not sure can you describe it a bit more in terms of what and what it what it will look like and how that handling will well it's obviously an industrial building and industrial buildings look like industrial buildings um they're they're big they're square they're boxy but the reason we put those visualizations in we were requested by the officer to do so there will be vegetation in front of the view and also the road so we had to include that the reason why we also had to go down sort of a more detailed line with the drp was because initially the the uh design was too flat and when we went to the drp they proposed to add height and texture to the elevations and they were happy with that and we got a recommendation for positive approval for them so that's where we're at and we've gone down all the sort of the news we've been told to by the council there's a detailed condition um attached to the reserve matters so further detail would be provided within that so i think we've done as much as we can really yeah and uh i mean on the scale i would say it's quite positive that you've stepped the building back so it doesn't look overly um large so it's from 15 to 9.3 and just in terms of the it's supposed to go take it on on the roof how many or how much would that be we don't know at this point it's just a sort of zone um on the roof at this point but there's a condition attached to preserve matters that will sort of provide more detail on that okay but yeah thank you um relating to james's first question about the design and appearance of the building um i know that toby johnson is with us it looks from the papers toby as though some progress has been made with the application in terms of the appearance um are you able to talk us through it briefly from the drp's point of view um yes i think uh certainly um uh we were um pleased whether this sort of one area of concern was the relationship to the existing houses i mean the the massing of the the um uh building had already been established uh but efforts have been made to soften that edge with planting and um hedging so i think that was one issue that we were satisfied with in relation to the architecture that it it we were pleased that the mass of the building had been sort of broken down in uh in some degree as far as um uh made sense in terms of the operation of the building um and uh as as was mentioned we were trying to get slightly more uh physical definition between the those different elements which um hopefully have been incorporated in the um applicant scheme um i think the uh the other thing that um we were encouraging is to to use um super graphics as and when a operator has been identified to sort of give give the building some sort of some sort of presence and identity from the north circular um which uh could do with some cheering up so um i think the um uh environmental performance and sort of maximizing that um is something to be encouraged i think we're we're trying generally to sort of increase the bar for industrial buildings particularly as they get sort of bigger and denser and take on a sort of more uh prominent um uh uh visual visually impactful role within the borough um and i think you know this this application we feel is is making those concessions so i think broadly we're happy thank you very much for that um and it's worth just reiterating for the record how um how much weight we give to our design review panel and how glad we are when we see applicants engaging with that process and adapting their plans accordingly um madeline i bring you in next thank you very much um as toby notes this is not an easy site to decide what to put there to make it look any better um it's a site that hasn't had a lot of love care and attention um i've got a couple of questions uh along different themes one of which is what's the lifespan of the building last 50 years i think okay yeah i noticed that the foundations uh shallow um what level of um industrial uh waste and uh i'm trying to think of what the correct word is uh toxic soil is underneath well there's a contamination condition uh within the outline concern yeah all the sort of detailed reports will be provided within that so the application cannot be well the development can't be commenced until those conditions are approved so all will be bottomed out when with the um environmental healthy yeah good good i've been involved in excavations on the other side and i do worry about my health at times uh of the river the other side of the river um i noticed that the glass haven't made um any consent uh any um sorry it's been a very long day glass haven't made any uh things to say that uh conditions that's the word glass haven't made any conditions but should anything appear has um has anyone been uh employed via the um developer or consulted in case there needs to be quick response um i don't believe so but i was assumed that a if required a condition could be put on um obviously glass had no concerns with the uh with the historical with the with the depth that that will because of the depth of the foundations but yeah and there was there also used to be a huge gas chamber on the site so i'd assume that and if that's taken most of it discovered there's been mitigation yeah yeah they already but but you never know you never know okay that's good to know the second thing i wanted to find out was um with regards to the use of the premises you know we can see that it's been proposed as a self-storage unit or some kind of industrial facility which is great we're very happy for jobs to be coming to new and opportunities for businesses to grow and develop um to benefit the local population but what is the need in that area for that kind of premises an awful lot of um uh student accommodation in the local area which we believe will be a um a main user of that that particular facility uh plus for the local housing in the local it's also it's also worth noting that is a it's designated as a local industrial site which encourages b8 uses so there's obviously a need within the within the borough for those sort of uses and that's why it's been dedicated to that site so there is the the people constructing the building not yourselves but the developers have identified a need for self-storage in that area we actually have a container facility on the site at the moment oh right okay thank you sorry i missed containers rather than an actual bill i understand now all right thank you be fair so we've okay it's just i thought i picked up in the officer's report that there hasn't been an end user identified not at this point not at this point not at this point so i'm confused about the use of the containers for storage if that's not going to be the current user taking over the use no we're going to remove the containers from the site i get have it have a uh a major player player in the in the self-storage um world actually take the building on but not storage game that was the original original end user right okay that's right then thank you for that uh i think that's it thank you um there were a few things that i've welcomed as i looked through i thought um toby's words about us wanting to get to get more if you like from industrial buildings in terms of design and sustainability um we're really well put and you know noting things like cheating brian excellent is really great including the photo botox on the roof planting stuff on the edges going through drp as well as also i note the um reduction in the quantum of car parking and increase in cycle parking which again sort of you know brings us much more into line with our current travel planning um along those lines i wondered whether these cycle parking facilities would include space for cargo bikes or for adapted cycles i believe the front the ones at the front the four external ones were big enough to include um those spaces yeah that's great to know thank you um i don't have any further questions were there any further questions or comments from members um in which case chloe could i ask you to share your screen again please thank you the strategic development committee is asked to note the committee update and resolve to agree the reasons for approval as set out in the report and grant planning permission based on the conditions listed in appendix one of the report can i ask those in favor to please show their hands and that is again unanimous thank you very much um that concludes the substantive items on tonight's agenda um strong contender for the shortest strategic development committee ever and pretty well timed being so close to christmas that's not the um the final item on the agenda is to note the date of our next meeting which is the 21st january 2025 so in the meantime thank all the officers for all the work they've put in tonight and thank pauline for um blocking us which is normally done um i wish everyone in the room online and anyone watching afterwards a very merry christmas restive festive period however you celebrate and a happy new year year thank you thank you thank you officers you