Agenda item

a)     Questions/comments from members of the public

b)     Questions/comments from representatives of parish/town councils

This is a chance for members of the public and representatives of Parish/Town Councils to participate in the meeting by asking questions, making comments and raising matters of concern.  Parish/Town Council representatives may also wish to use this opportunity to ask for the District Council’s support on any matter of particular concern to their Parish/Town. The public and representatives of Parish/Town Councils will be invited to speak on any planning related questions later in the agenda, before the planning applications are considered.

Mrs Angela Barton, a member of the public addressed the committee and wished it be recorded that she believes the draft minutes of the meeting held on 9^th March 2016 were inaccurate with regard to Minute 197 15/04069/FUL – Henstridge Airfield,  on two procedural issues.  Firstly she considered local residents were prejudiced from the late submission of information from the applicant which was accepted and incorporated into the officer’s powerpoint presentation and that as the public were not aware of these changes, and it outside the 72 hour rule, there is a prejudicial procedure issue when dealing with the application.

She also believed the minutes fail to show that the officer made only partial reference to his powerpoint presentation before then presenting all the suggested changes that the applicant requested.  She therefore felt that members of the public were unable to have time to respond and that although the minutes suggest they were in support of the application this was not the case once the changes to conditions were presented.

David Seeker a member of the public also addressed the committee referring to Minute 197 15/04069/FUL – Henstridge Airfield of the meeting held on 9^th March 2016.  He believed the public had no opportunity to respond to the applicant’s varied proposed conditions as revealed for the first time at committee on 9^th March 2016.  He wished that consideration be made regarding the impact on public amenity and in particular the cumulative impact of the noise nuisance. 

He asked that a number of factors to be taken into account including various noise levels, frequency of noise, repetitiveness of noise and duration of events.   He felt it vital that all these issues need to be considered cumulatively and asked that an environmental impact assessment be carried out to evaluate the cumulative impact on the public amenity of the conditions imposed before a final decision can be made.

Laura Courtenay addressed the committee.  She referred to the minutes of the 9^th March 2016 Minute 197 Henstridge Airfield (Agenda Item 14) and believed that the Location of the 4^th paragraph be incorrect.  This information (the applicant’s suggested amendments to conditions) was presented later in the meeting, after members of the public had been given an opportunity to speak.  To accurately reflect the chronological order of events at that meeting the 4^th paragraph should have been recorded after Public participation, when the meeting had been reconvened. 

In addition she believed the minutes fail to record the following matter of fact:

The Area Lead Officer verbally reported that recent advice indicated that a requirement that all aircraft using the airfield be fitted with ‘approved’ exhausts/silencers would be a more appropriate form of control in conjunction with a 3,500 kg weight limit, over the noise from individual aircraft and later referred to this in connection with proposed condition 16.

She requested that the members of the public, present at the meeting held on 9^th March 2016 ask that this statement be recorded in the minutes of today’s meeting.

Laura Courtenay also wished it noted that with regard to the minutes of the meeting held on 13^th April 2016 Minute 203 – Public Participation Paragraph 4 as inaccurate as her name had been misspelt and that toward the end of her statement she fully accepted the site had been granted lawful use as an airfield in 2002.  She accepted that the minutes had been approved but wished for this statement to be recorded.

Mr Darcey addressed the committee.  He wished it noted that with regard to Minute 197 15/04069/FUL – Henstridge Airfield of the meeting held on 9^th March 2016 it had indicated his support for the proposed conditions. However this was before he had seen the alterations on the powerpoint presentation at that meeting and wished to record that he no longer supported the application.

At the conclusion of a short discussion, the Area Lead Officer advised members that he had fairly indicated in his powerpoint presentation of planning application 15/04069/FUL – Henstridge Airfield the differences between his recommendation and what the applicant had wanted.  He believed there was nothing new in his presentation that would have be introduced by way of an oral update in any case and had included it in his presentation for additional clarity purposes only.  He was therefore confident that there were no procedural inaccuracy’s in this case.