Council and democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL.

Contact: Lottie Raper, Senior Democratic Services Officer  Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

69.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 102 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 8 February 2018.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 8 February 2018 were approved as a correct record.

70.

Item of Urgent Business

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

71.

Declaration of Interests

Minutes:

Councillor Piccolo declared an interest regarding Item 8, 17/00923/FUL: Yard E2, Stanhope Industrial Park, Wharf Road, Stanford Le Hope, Essex, SS17 0AL in that he had previously been involved in objections against a development in the same industrial park.  However he assured the Committee that he was of an open mind and would consider the application to be determined on its merit.

72.

Declarations of receipt of correspondence and/or any meetings/discussions held relevant to determination of any planning application or enforcement action to be resolved at this meeting

Minutes:

The Vice-Chair declared that, as a Ward Councillor for Tilbury he had attended meetings with the Port and also received countless correspondence from reseidents regarding Item 11, Tilbury2 NSIP: Land forming the western part of the former Tilbury Power Station, land parallel to and south of the existing London-Tilbury-South railway line south of Tilbury and land at the Asda roundabout junction, Tilbury.

 

Councillor Rice noted that all members of the Committee could declare the same regarding that item.

73.

Planning Appeals pdf icon PDF 67 KB

Minutes:

The report provided information regarding planning appeal performance.

 

Councillor Ojetola hoped that the next report would collate the performance for the whole year.  The Committee heard that this was usually presented at the first meeting in a municipal year but it was noted that the Authority had an excellent appeal rate at present.

 

The Chair highlighted that there was an upcoming public enquiry regarding the Little Thurrock Marshes, to be held 15 – 18 May 2018.

 

RESOLVED:

 

The Committee noted the report.

 

74.

17/00923/FUL: Yard E2, Stanhope Industrial Park, Wharf Road, Stanford Le Hope, Essex, SS17 0AL pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

The application sought permission for the use of the land for open storage with an ancillary office building and a workshop building. The majority of the site would be dedicated to storage; with areas for car and lorry parking and turnaround areas.  The Principal Planner informed Members that, following further consideration of the conditions amendments had been proposed to No 5, 9 and 16; none of the amendments would affect the overall nature of the condition; but more tightly defined the parameters. 

 

Councillor Jones queried the finer details of “open storage”.  The Officer indicated that proposal was for storage of portable containers however it would not be restricted.  Councillor Jones continued that the vehicle movements would therefore be container lorries with cranes and asked how many there would be.  There were limitations set at 31 HGV movements per day.

 

Councillor Rice questioned whether there was anything planned to pursue a road from the site to the interchange taking traffic away from Stanford, similar to that proposed by the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation in the past.  The Senior Highways Engineer recalled those plans, which had previously been considered as a potential route, but had been limited by a number of constraints such as railway access and private roads.  He noted there were issues of flooding in Wharf Road which were currently being addressed.  In terms of the Local Plan process sites would need to be assessed at a high level regarding access needs and at present nothing specific was under consideration.  Councillor Rice emphasised the need to consider such options, particularly given the planned expansion of Stanford, such as 150 new homes on Victoria Road.  The local road network would soon become clogged and areas such as Stanford brought to a standstill he considered.

 

Councillor Churchman referred to paragraph 6.6 of the application and asked whether the restriction of vehicular movements of 31 per day was absolute or whether it would be possible to go above that figure.  Members were assured that the absolute maximum of HGV movements a day was set at 31, which could be controlled and monitored through the company’s log books.  Smaller cars and vans might attend but it was possible to limit the number of HGVs, which were the real concern.

 

Councillor Piccolo expressed concern regarding access and egress for vehicles via the major road network.  He sought clarification as to whether there were weight restrictions in place or the ability to direct HGVs to turn right onto Corringham Road to prevent them travelling through the town centre. A vehicle routing arrangement had been requested as part of the consultation response from Highways officers.  There had been difficulty in previous applications, given their scale, in securing that requirement.  The Highways Engineer advised that Council was currently looking at schemes, outside of this application to amend weight restrictions within Stanford as they currently included Wharf Road and Corringham Road meaning any HGV travelling via Church Hill would be subject to enforcement.  Councillor Piccolo was worried that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

75.

18/00018/FUL: Thurrock Learning Campus, High Street, Grays, Essex, RM17 6TF pdf icon PDF 192 KB

Minutes:

The application sought temporary permission for the retention of the further education building for 5 years, cut back to north-west corner of building, infill of existing courtyard and modifications to the layout and amount of disabled car parking, cycle and motorcycle parking.

 

Councillor Ojetola stated that, naturally the Committee supported education within the borough.  He questioned the definition of “temporary” given that the applicant had been granted temporary permission twice previously.  The Principal Planner advised that permission would be for another 5 year period as the land was Council owned and the Council wished to retain freedom for future regeneration plans.  It was also noted that the modular design of the building was suitable for temporary permission; however an improved design would be required for permanent permission.  Councillor Ojetola continued to state that, were this a commercial application, the Committee would be more harsh regarding repeated extensions to temporary permission.  He had no objection to the proposals however he found another renewal of temporary permission for a period of 5 years alarming.

 

The Agent, Vincent Gabbe, was invited to the Committee to present his statement of support.

 

It was proposed by Councillor Jones and seconded by Councillor Churchman that the application be approved, subject to conditions, as per the officer’s recommendation.

 

For:                  Councillors Tom Kelly (Chair), Steve Liddiard (Vice-Chair), Colin Churchman, Graham Hamilton, Roy Jones, Terry Piccolo, Gerard Rice and Graham Snell

 

Against:           (0)

 

Abstain:           Councillor Tunde Ojetola

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the application be approved, subject to conditions.

 

76.

18/00019/FUL: Thurrock Learning Campus, High Street, Grays, Essex, RM17 6TF pdf icon PDF 189 KB

Minutes:

The application sought temporary permission for the retention of the further education building for 5 years, and modifications to the layout and amount of disabled car parking, cycle and motorcycle parking.

 

Councillor Ojetola sought clarification that the main difference from the previous application was around the land ownership issue.  It was confirmed that this application sought to retain the building as it currently stood, including a small pocket of third party land which the Council was seeking to buy.  The applicant was simply safeguarding their position for either eventuality.

 

The Agent, Vincent Gabbe, was invited to the Committee to present his statement of support.

 

Councillor Rice expressed his support for the Thurrock Learning Campus which was supporting the borough’s young people.

 

Councillor Ojetola reiterated his previous stance that, while he supported the education, a permanent, long-term decision was required.

 

It was proposed by the Vice-Chair and seconded by Councillor Churchman that the application be approved, subject to conditions, as per the officer’s recommendation.

 

For:                  Councillors Tom Kelly (Chair), Steve Liddiard (Vice-Chair), Colin Churchman, Graham Hamilton, Roy Jones, Terry Piccolo, Gerard Rice and Graham Snell

 

Against:           (0)

 

Abstain:           Councillor Tunde Ojetola

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the application be approved, subject to conditions.

 

77.

Tilbury2 NSIP: Land forming the western part of the former Tilbury Power Station, land parallel to and south of the existing London-Tilbury- South railway line south of Tilbury and land at the Asda roundabout junction, Tilbury. pdf icon PDF 76 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Principal Planner – Major Applications presented the report.  Members were advised that this was not a ‘normal’ application for determination by the Planning Committee.  The proposals submitted by the Port of Tilbury London Ltd. were defined as a Nationally Strategic Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and the accompanying application for a Development Consent Order would therefore be considered by a panel of inspectors reporting to the Secretary of State, who would take the final decision.  Although the Local Authority would not determine the application, as the host borough they were encouraged to participate in the process and therefore the Planning Committee was asked to endorse the Local Impact Report and Written Representation.  The NSIP process was governed by strict timeframes and therefore it was crucial that the Committee reached a decision and did not defer, as the documents and comments would not be taken into account if they were not submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by midnight Tuesday 20 March 2018.

 

The Vice-Chair expressed the view that the Port of Tilbury had always been deemed to be a good neighbour, however it was suggested that some of its tenants raised noise and air pollution issues.  He queried what could be done to ensure that future tenants would not cause environmental impacts related to noise and air quality.  The visual appearance of the proposed container storage area was also queried.  Any approval of a Development Consent Order by the Secretary of State would not be unconditional; permission would be subject to ‘requirements’.  Draft requirements had been submitted for consideration and suggestions had been made within the Local Impact Report.  Requirements were similar to planning conditions for general applications; details of external appearance of buildings would have to be submitted and agreed by Thurrock as the local Planning Authority, there would be height restrictions, flood risk assessment, noise and air quality mitigation and ongoing noise monitoring and other such matters as would usually be expected.  The requirements would be legally binding.  The Environmental Statement assumed the worst case scenario and formulated mitigation proposals accordingly.  The reality was that during operation containers would be moving and heights would periodically go up and down.  Within the Local Impact Report the worst case scenario also assumed that Tilbury Power Station would not be there, though it was considered likely that there would be a replacement power station in the future and therefore the visual backdrop would change again.  Landscape had been assessed to be a negative impact however not significantly and taking the whole proposal on balance the clear benefits of the scheme outweighed this impact.

 

Councillor Rice sought assurance that the Fort Road and Dock Road access routes would be maintained, as there was a routing system currently in place installed by Thurrock Council.  The Principal Highways Engineer informed the Committee that there was a proposal to provide an extension to the current bridge over the Fort Road with the intention of maintaining a strong link to the existing network and relocating as much traffic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.