Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests in respect of any item of business to be considered at the meeting.

Declarations of Interest

Councillor Steven McCormick, Other Interest: In the interest of openness and transparency, Councillor Steven McCormick declared that he and most of the other Members of the Planning Committee had received a representation from a resident in relation to Item 3 on the Agenda.

The Committee is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Planning Committee held on the 21 July and to authorise the Chair to sign them.

The Minutes of the Previous Meeting of the Planning Committee held on 21 July 2022 were agreed as a true record by the Committee and signed by the Chair.

Demolition of existing building and erection of two linked, two storey buildings containing 22 student bedrooms, associated parking and cycle parking.

Description

Demolition of existing building and erection of two linked, two storey buildings containing 22 student bedrooms, associated parking and cycle parking.

Decision

The Committee noted a presentation from the Planning Officer.

The Committee considered the possibility of a refusal of the application. The Chair considered it appropriate to require a deferral of the item to the next Planning Committee meeting to allow further discussions to be had.

Following consideration, the Committee resolved (8 in favour, 4 against, 0 abstaining and the Chair not voting) that the application be DEFERRED.

The reason for deferral was in order to arrange a Member site visit, with a view to bringing the application to the next meeting of the Committee, following said site visit.

The request for a site visit was made on the following grounds:

(1)          It was considered by Members to be essential in order to clarify issues, both for Members and the Agent, that could not be understood without such a visit, and which could not be considered prior to such a visit. The Committee considered that particular factors to be seen on site would be significant in terms of the weight to be afforded to them in determining the application, and because, following discussion in Committee, Members had reduced confidence that such factors could be fairly considered in the absence of a site visit to assess such details.

The Committee considered the importance for Members to have access to the rear of the property during the site visit.

A report setting out the following recent planning appeal decisions which relate to non-householder developments, which have been received by the Planning Service.

The Committee noted the appeal decisions in relation to non-householder developments and noted the Summary of Pending Appeals.