 |
Wrington PARISH COUNCIL Planning Minutes |
 |
Minutes of a Meeting of the Planning Committee of Wrington Parish Council held in the John Locke room on Tuesday, 27th June, 2006
The Chairman opened the Meeting at 18.00 hours. 7 members of the public were in attendance with a specific interest in Gatcombe Farm, including the owner, Mr. Roland Tanner and his adviser, Mr. Mike Orr of CSJ. The Chairman explained that the order of the Agenda had to be maintained, but they were unlikely to be detained long before Item 5 was reached. Declaration of Members Interests – Cllr. Matthews said he lived opposite Butts Batch (re planning application) and the Chairman said he lived near Gatcombe Farm (re item 5) The Minutes of the Meetings held on 6th June and 19th June 2006 were adopted. Matters Arising – (6th June meeting) none. Public Participation – The Chairman invited Mr. Orr of CSJ to address the meeting. Mr. Orr said he and Mr. Tanner would like to make some remarks to gauge local opinion before pursuing one or other of the planning options which they believed they had open to them following the decision in their favour by the High Court which overturned on appeal, with costs, a refusal by North Somerset Council to grant them planning permission previously. This judgement meant they did have B1, B2 and B8 approval for industrial use. He and Mr. Tanner recognised that NSC was taking enforcement action against the current use of the site for airport car parking. Whilst they would have the right of appeal against this, they could alternatively pursue a range of uses given the B1, B2, B8 approvals, or they could resurrect the scheme for housing development, which they foresaw as leading to very much less additional daily traffic than any of the industrial possibilities. Before finally deciding which alternative to take, they would like to get a sense of local opinion, and of the problems encountered both when the site was empty, and when in use. Mr. Tanner added that after 11 years, residential development might not be the most beneficial financially from his point of view. Cllr. Clements recalled that at the time of the original planning application, the parish council agreed that housing was the best option, especially as the application included the possibility of office space being included, which would reduce the number of residents having to travel to work. Cllr. Bigg drew attention to the pressure from NSC to expand the existing industrial space on the south side of the Village, and argued that it would be illogical to introduce additional industrial development at Gatcombe Farm, especially as the Havyatt route was designated for industrial traffic. Mr. Orr stated that, faced with enforcement action, they were keen to pursue a locally popular option. Cllr. Clements summed up the options as (1) car parking- no; (2) industrial- no; (3) housing, possibly with offices- yes. The Chairman advised that, alongside a housing application, it would be beneficial if Messrs. Tanner and Orr arranged for the green-belt paddock against Sims Hill wood to be cleared of the debris dumped following the recent palette fire, and used their best efforts to ensure more careful driving by those ferrying cars to and from the airport, in order to avoid a repetition, or worse, of the recent head-on crash when a Post Office van was written off by a car being driven recklessly and without even a seat belt being worn. The 5 residents neighbouring Gatcombe Farm all supported the ides of residential development as by far the preferred option, commenting that their life was being made hell by the present situation. North Somerset Planning Committee Minutes – In the absence of the Clerk, the Chairman commented on the NSC South Area Committee Minutes of 24th May and the agenda for 21st June. Planning Certificates issued by North Somerset Council – [see separate table attached] as per pre-meeting report. The Clerk did mention that a certificate of approval was on its way relating to the conversion of the dog kennels at Church View, Felton to residential accommodation- in the past previous applications had been turned down. Planning Applications For planning applications and comments see attached sheet. There being no other business the meeting was declared closed at 19.10 hours. Mr. D W Glynn |
||||||||||||||
