Council and democracy

Agenda item

19/01864/TBC - Household Waste And Recycling Centre, Buckingham Hill Road, Linford, Essex

Minutes:

The report was presented by Tom Scriven. There was an update in that new site plans had been provided which required an amendment to plan numbers in condition 2 on page 163 of the Agenda. A second update related to the deletion of Condition 11 on page 163 of the Agenda, as the contamination details submitted were acceptable.

 

The application sought planning permission for the extension and comprehensive redevelopment of the exiting House Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC). The Officer’s recommendation was to grant planning permission subject to referral to the Secretary of State and conditions for the reasons listed on page 162 of the Agenda.

 

The full details of the application can be found on pages 139 – 172 of the Agenda.

 

Councillor Byrne sought clarification on whether the bridleway on the other side of the road of the site would be affected to which Steve Lines, Senior Highways Engineer, confirmed that the bridleway would not be affected.

 

Councillor Byrne went on to comment that the scheme was ‘brilliant’ but would only work if there was enough funds to see the project through. He highlighted cost concerns in other projects ongoing within the Council. The Chair said that the Committee could only assume that there would be funds to support the scheme but could only look at the application on planning terms.

 

Steve Taylor sought clarification on the elevation of the ground level of the site as shown in the Officer’s presentation. He questioned if the ground level was elevated on the field side behind the site to which Tom Scriven confirmed that it was.

 

Councillor Lawrence mentioned that the temporary traffic lights in place near the site often did not work and caused traffic congestion in the area. She asked whether a condition could be attached to the application to ensure the traffics lights were in consistent working condition. Steve Lines explained that the temporary traffic lights were under the control of Persimmon Homes who were developing a site near the application site. He went on to say that the temporary traffic lights had no bearing on the application that was before the Committee. Councillor Lawrence asked whether the application could be put on hold until the situation with the traffic lights was resolved. Steve Lines explained that the matter of temporary traffic signals and traffic management would have to go through the Network Management team. The current situation was in place to protect BT chambers and was awaiting reconstruction works of these chambers. He went on to say that the Council had no control over when BT would undertake these works that would allow for the road to be fully opened.

 

Noting that the traffic lights were causing congestion within the application’s site area, the Vice-Chair questioned whether a condition could be imposed to restrict the timing of the planning permission to ensure the scheme was completed within a certain time frame. Tom Scriven explained that the issue arose from another development that had no bearing on the current application that was before the Committee. Therefore, such a condition could not be imposed and there had been no objection from Highways in the consultation stage of the application. He went on to say that the Applicant could decide to start the scheme later if the traffic light issue continued on but that would be within the gift of the Applicant to do so.

 

The Chair commented that the current use of the application site for waste disposal was risky and welcomed the scheme. He felt that the traffic around the site needed to be looked into.

 

Councillor Rice proposed the Officer’s recommendation with Councillor Churchman seconding it.

 

For: (8) Councillors Abbie Akinbohun, Gary Byrne, Colin Churchman, Mike Fletcher, Tom Kelly, David Potter, Gerard Rice and Sue Shinnick.

 

Against: (0)

 

Abstained: (1) Councillor Angela Lawrence.

 

Planning application 19/01864/TBC was granted planning permission subject to referral to the Secretary of State and conditions.

Supporting documents: