Address:       Land rear of 7 - 37 Barton Road, Gravenhurst, Bedford,

MK45 4JP

Variation of condition 14 attached to planning permission reference CB/15/04081/OUT dated 17 January 2017 so that landscaping on the south eastern boundary of the site is carried out in accordance with drawing number WHK20175 11E  (Southern Boundary Proposals).

Applicant:     The RonCon Trust

The Committee had before it a report regarding Planning Application No. CB/17/00442/VOC for the variation of condition 14 attached to planning permission reference CB/15/04081/OUT dated 17 January 2017 so that landscaping on the south eastern boundary of the site was carried out in accordance with drawing number WHK20175 11E (Southern Boundary Proposals) on land rear of 7-37 Barton Road, Gravenhurst, Bedford, MK45 4JP.

In advance of consideration of the application the Committee’s attention was drawn to additional/amended conditions in the form of an additional informative as set out in the Late Sheet.

In advance of consideration of the application the Committee received a representation from the agent for the applicant under the public participation scheme.

A Member sought clarification from the agent.  The Member stated that he had closely examined the trees (the subject of the application together with other landscape features) when on the Council’s site inspection and several appeared to have been dead for approximately ten years.  He asked the agent if the applicant could remove the trees regardless of their condition given they were not covered by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO).  In response the agent referred to the planning officer’s introduction and to the arboriculture report submitted in support of the application which stated that the trees were not protected by any designation and could be removed at any time.

A second Member sought clarification as to whether the proposed layout of the trees lay within private gardens or outside them.  In response the agent explained that the layout was a Reserved Matter and would come forward with a Reserved Matters application.  The application before Members was for a variation to a condition attached to the existing outline planning permission.  There was an illustrative layout but that was not necessarily the layout that would be submitted under Reserved Matters.

A Member asked the agent to confirm that there was a provisional layout which placed some of the trees outside of the gardens and some inside them.  In response the agent stated that in terms of the current proposal the outline planning permission included a management plan which sought to protect the landscape features on the site.  With regard to the location of the proposed trees some were within gardens but that was not to be determined at this stage.

A Member asked if it would be possible to lay out the site in such a way that the trees would not be in private gardens.  The agent advised that the scheme had been considered so that it would be possible to retain the trees that the Council’s officers had considered to be of importance.  With regard to the trees on the south-eastern boundary he stated that options had been considered whereby they were protected or there could be a means of protecting them.  That was the key intention of the condition.  The Member felt her question had not been answered and repeated it.  The agent stated that in terms of the layout of the site and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 142