The Principal Planner presented the report to the Committee. The application sought full planning permission for the construction of a mixed use development, compromising of two retail/leisure and commercial units. At upper level of the proposed building would be 47 residential units with an under croft and surfaces car park with 53 parking spaces. It was confirmed by the Officers that the Church view from King Street would still be visible if the application were to be approved. The proposed building would be up to 5 storeys at its maximum height. A previous planning permission was granted back in 2012 which had since lapsed and expired.

The Vice-Chair asked whether this proposal was going to provide electric charging points. It was confirmed by the Senior Highways Engineer that there had been no request at this time. 

The Chair raised concerns with the current parking situation in Stanford Le Hope and the proposed parking which would be available for the public as currently there are 76 spaces which would be reduced to 43. The local businesses would struggle for parking if this proposal was to be approved. The Chair asked if this would go against the Council’s policy for parking spaces. The Officers confirmed the current parking situation and the proposed level of parking with the development and that would remain in the public car parking areas confirming that there were no objections from Highway’s with regard to policy and the draft Parking Standards. The Chair asked if the proposal would affected the town centre through the loss of parking as there was no retail use on the site and in terms of the proposal two new retail/commercial units would be provided at the site which would promote the vitality and viability of the town centre in accordance with Core Strategy policies and the up to date NPPF.

The Chair asked whether there were any implements in place to stop residents using the public parking spaces despite having an additional 3 spaces for visitors.

Mr Taylor highlighted that currently there was an increase in shops in Stanford Le Hope and a reduction on parking spaces. The Officers explained that this was a town centre location and members of the public would have the opportunity to use other modes of transport to access the town centre through walking, cycling, bus services and rail the nearby railway station.

The Ward Councillor, Councillor Shane Hebb, was invited to the Committee to present his statement of objection.

The Agent, Mr Simmonds, was invited to the Committee to present his statement of Support.

Resident, Mr Terry Piccolo, was invited to the Committee to present his statement of objection. During his statement he mentioned that a petition had been sent into the Council with around 500 signatures against this application. The Officers confirmed that they had not received this petition and that this would need consideration prior to determining the planning application. 

The Officers addressed the comments raised in Mr Piccolo’s speaker statement regarding the conditions with the sale of the land with regard to covenant placed on the land through Land Registry. The Officers explained that the Land Registry document was a separate document and relates to the sale of the site and included covenants that were solely related to the 2012 planning permission and those conditions would no longer enforceable as the planning permission had lapsed.

The Chair asked whether the 100 spaces which were proposed in the 2012 application would be removed. The Officers confirmed the conditions were relating to the Land Registry document were not on the planning conditions and therefore could not be enforced through planning legislation.

Mr Taylor, asked if there was no relation to planning, who legally would be able to enforce the legal agreement.

The Legal Representative explained to the Committee that the land was transferred in 2012 for £350,000 and the transfer had restrictive covenants based on the 2012 permission being implemented and carried out. As a consequence of that there would have been 100 car parking spaces being provided but because the consent was never implemented the covenants cannot be enforced.

The covenants would have been enforced by the Council as the land owner and was not a matter for this Planning Committee. In this case the covenants were directly related to the 2012 permission, another way of dealing with this would have been covenants relating to the use of land and not relating to the 2012 permission and it was unclear why this had not been done at the time.

Councillor Hamilton asked if the Planning Committee had uncovered a flaw in the system as it had allowed that planning permission to lapse. The land was sold for £350,000 with all restrictions that no longer applied.

The Legal Representative advised the Committee that the Monitoring Officer had completed a report on this in May 2017 and had full knowledge of this and had been known about for some time. Planning permission had been granted in 2012, but the applicant did not proceed with that permission.

Councillor Rice said the only way this could have been prevented would be to put a legal agreement in place as the Council was dependent on the Legal Representative.

It was proposed by the Chair, Councillor Kelly, for this application to be deferred to allow Members and Officers time to look into the petition received, this was seconded by Councillor Rice. 

For: (8) Councillors Tom Kelly (Chair), Steve Liddiard (Vice-Chair), Graham Hamilton, Victoria Holloway, Angela Lawrence, David Potter, Gerard Rice and Sue Sammons.

Against: (0)

Abstain: (0)