Agenda item

The Planning Officer presented the report as detailed in full in the agenda report, she emphasised the reason why this application was back to AEC for consideration and provided members with an update from Keinton Mandeville PC who wished to reiterate their previous comments and their recommendation to refuse the application.  The officer confirmed that her recommendation was to approve the application.

The chairman reminded members that a previous appeal had been dismissed by a Planning Inspector due to the lack of provision of recreational facilities.

Ward Member Cllr John Calvert understood why the village had been opposed to this application and he was unhappy that the government had removed the planning obligations on small developments which meant that Keinton Mandeville would no longer receive money towards local facilities.

During discussion various comments were made including:

·         The previous application had only been approved because it had included a S106 obligation towards sport and recreation facilities which the local community would have the benefit of. Without the agreement the previous application would probably have been refused by AEC members;

·         The site would only be sustainable with the S106 agreement;

·         Suggested the application should be deferred until it was known if the completed site would have more than 1,000 square meters of floor space as that would mean a S106 obligation would have to be included;

·         It would be difficult to go against government legislation.

In response to several queries the Area Lead East replied that;

·         In the light of an earlier appeal the previous application had been approved with the inclusion of a S106 obligation, but due to recent government legislation and the fact that this application was for less than 10 dwellings the Council could no longer request the leisure and recreation contributions sought by Leisure Policy, if this application was unacceptable to AEC members that would potentially mean that all schemes under 10 dwellings would be unacceptable;

·         The proposed informative 01 was to ensure that the applicant was aware that a financial contribution towards leisure and recreational facilities could still be sought at Reserved Matters stage if the combined gross floor space of the development exceeded 1,000 square metres;

·         A condition could not be imposed regarding obligations as the application was below the threshold, tariff based contributions could not be sought without evidence, Sports Art and Leisure had previously carried out a long exercise regarding this, any new scheme would have to be evidence based;

·         The developer had not previously signed the S106 agreement and did not wish to make any local contribution.

The Senior Legal Executive advised that as the obligation had not been signed contributions could not be requested or enforced; a contract and mechanism for payment would be required to ensure enforcement of any private agreement.

A proposal was made to defer the application for further discussions to take place with the applicant in order to give them the opportunity to renegotiate a payment for local sport, art and leisure facilities, not a strategic element, as it was considered that the application would be unsustainable without that part. The proposal was seconded and on being put to the vote the motion was carried by 6 votes in favour, 1 abstention and 2 votes against.

RESOLVED: That Planning Application 14/02896/OUT be deferred to seek an agreement with the applicant for the retention of the local element of sport, art and leisure obligations. To include the elements targeted within the locality not strategic elements to go to Yeovil.

(Voting: 6 in favour; 1 abstention. 2 against)