Address:       Land off Greenfield Road, Flitton, Bedford, MK45 5DR

Residential development of 24 dwellings with associated open space, landscaping and access off Greenfield Road.

Applicant:     GPS Estates Ltd

The Committee had before it a report regarding Planning Application No. CB/18/02484/FULL for a residential development of 24 dwellings with associated open space, landscaping and access off Greenfield Road, Flitton, Bedford, MK45 5DR.

In advance of consideration of the application the Committee’s attention was drawn to additional amended conditions/reasons and an update to the report.  Members were advised that the specified highways conditions were not to be found in the Late Sheet as had been stated but had actually been included in the body of the report.

In advance of consideration of the application the Committee received representations from Flitton and Greenfield Parish Councillor Gareth Ellis and the applicant’s agent, Ms Samantha Boyd.  Both parties responded to queries from Members.

As the ward Member, who had called in the application, was unable to attend another Member read out a statement on his behalf.  The ward Member raised a number of objections to the application including that Flitton was a small village with limited facilities and was thus unsuitable for this scale of development, that there was no adequate S106 provision for education and other key infrastructure under the application, and allowing both the proposed entrances onto the main road from the site raised safety concerns.

The planning officer responded to the points raised as follows:

·         The second access was an existing access and there were no objections from the highways officer to its provision.

·         Historically S106 contributions had not been sought from applications for the site which made it difficult for the Council to improve on that position.

·         The Appeal Statement for the site stated that no evidence had been put forward by the Council in support of local concerns that the school was already oversubscribed and that services would be placed under pressure.

·         The leisure contribution had, nonetheless, been renegotiated positively.

The Committee considered the application and in summary discussed the following:

·         That the relevant condition and informatives would cover all issues relating to surface water, drainage and flood mitigation.  The SuDS team had indicated that it accepted the compliance condition (amended condition 2) as set out in the Late Sheet.

·         The inclusion of a condition to retain the existing four mature trees on the application site and protect them during construction works.

·         Disappointment that the Planning Inspector had not recognised the impact of the application on the historic environment, the reason why the Council had refused the Outline application, and the constraint on the Council’s freedom to respond to the Full application as a result of the Appeal decision.

·         The addition of a further condition regarding the entrance gates on the separate, smaller entrance to the three dwellings because, as the gates opened inward, should either, in the interests of safety, be set further back from the highway by a total of five meters to allow vehicles to pull off the road completely or be automatically controlled.

On being put to the vote 11 Members voted for approval, 0 voted against and 1 abstained.

RESOLVED

1          that Planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 106