Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the Area South Committee held on Wednesday 4^th September 2019.

The minutes of the Area South Committee held on 4^th September 2019 copies of which had been circulated, were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Karl Gill, Mike Lock, Pauline Lock and Rob Stickland.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February 2015), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting. 

Members are reminded that they need to declare the fact that they are also a member of a County, Town or Parish Council as a Personal Interest.  Where you are also a member of Somerset County Council and/or a Town or Parish Council within South Somerset you must declare a prejudicial interest in any business on the agenda where there is a financial benefit or gain or advantage to Somerset County Council and/or a Town or Parish Council which would be at the cost or to the financial disadvantage of South Somerset District Council. 

Planning Applications Referred to the District Council’s Regulation Committee

The following members of this Committee are also members of the Council's Regulation Committee:

Councillors Peter Gubbins, Tony Lock, David Recardo and Andy Soughton.

Where planning applications are referred by this Committee to the Regulation Committee for determination, Members of the Regulation Committee can participate and vote on these items at the Area Committee and at Regulation Committee. In these cases the Council's decision-making process is not complete until the application is determined by the Regulation Committee.  Members of the Regulation Committee retain an open mind and will not finalise their position until the Regulation Committee.  They will also consider the matter at Regulation Committee as Members of that Committee and not as representatives of the Area Committee.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

There were no questions from members of the public present.

The Chairman advised that he had agreed with the Leader of Council that officers give short presentations to the Committee on their service for the benefit of new Councillors.  He said the Leisure and Recreation Manager and the Environment Services Manager would be invited to present shortly.

This is an opportunity for Members who represent the Council on outside organisations to report items of interest to the Committee.

Councillor John Clark reported the successful completion of St Peter’s Community Centre in Westfield, Yeovil.

The Locality Team Leader reminded Members that they had met in July to agree their Area Chapter priorities for the years 2020/21.  He said the priorities would evolve and continue to be added to during the year.

During discussion it was noted that the recently adopted Environment Strategy would bring forward some priorities like electric vehicle charging points but they should be included as an Area Priority too.  The inclusion of Solar Panels on new build houses and possibly above SSDC car parks should also be pursued.  It was suggested that there was very little youth provision in the town centre and an empty shop could be used as a temporary youth facility.  The Locality Team Leader advised that there were youth groups in the town but since the demise of the Somerset Youth Service there were none in the centre.  The cost of setting up a temporary youth facility would be high if Members wished to pursue this.  It was noted that the Town Council had funded some youth provision.  The Chairman asked that suggested venues be forwarded to the Locality Team Leader to investigate the costs and feasibility of providing a youth facility.  It was also suggested that deterring vehicles from the town centre would help to reduce carbon emissions.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to confirm their agreed priorities for the Area subject to the suggested amendments to be presented to District Executive for consideration for inclusion in the Council Plan.

The Chairman suggested that planning applications be advertised as commencing at 2.00pm in the future to prevent any breaks in the meeting.  He said that he was prepared to be flexible and vary the order of the agenda depending upon public attendance. 

It was noted that the consideration of planning applications had been moved to 4.00pm to allow those members of the public who were working to attend, however, the Chairman said that he would be flexible and trial a 2.00pm start.

During discussion, Members requested reports on:

·         SCC Highways be invited to report on the recent road improvements in the town and the public feedback.

·         the Innovation Centre uptake in the new extension & throughput of businesses at the centre.

·         progress report on the new Yeovil Crematorium (March/April)

·         IAero Project

·         Update on the Octagon Theatre

Members noted the Planning Appeals.

Members noted the Schedule of Planning Applications.

Proposal: Residential dwellings with associated access, landscape and public open space

The Development Management Lead officer advised that since writing the report, a further letter of objection had been received querying whether the recent highway improvements in the area had been taken into account in the application.  The Highway Authority had confirmed that they had no additional comments to make on the amended plans.  He reminded Members that the site already had outline permission for housing but a small paddock area previously included was now omitted.  The proposed housing density was still acceptable.  The hedge around the paddock would be retained so the landscape impact was reduced, there were no material changes in planning circumstances and the proposal was not considered contrary to the East Coker Neighbourhood Plan, therefore the recommendation was to approve the application subject to a suitable Section 106 Agreement.  A further Condition 19 was proposed to include electric vehicle charging points at all the houses.

In response to questions from Members, the Development Management Lead officer confirmed:-

·         The provision of the Locally Equipped Area of Play (LEAP) and its siting and layout was dealt with in Condition 18.

·         There had not been any recent traffic survey on Camp Road, Odcombe and the Highway Authority had looked at the application a number of times and raised no objections.

·         The Local Plan had a policy on electric vehicle charging points but not on solar panels on new developments so it was not possible to require this in any conditions of approval however, the developer could be encouraged to consider this. 

·         There was only pedestrian and cycle access from the south of the site.  Vehicle access would only be from the north of the site.

·         There were a number of restricted bridleways in the area and they were not affected by the application.

The Committee were addressed by the Agent for the applicant in support of the application.  He said the application was granted outline permission in 2018 and since then the owner had been unable to agree purchase terms with the owner of the adjacent paddock.  The paddock was only ½ hectare and its removal meant there would be 18 dwellings per hectare rather than 16 as previously agreed.  He said the layout was similar to that previously agreed, the vehicle access was the same and the central village green area was retained.  There would be bungalows to the east of the site to reduce the impact on the residential amenity of the existing properties and the hedge around the paddock would be retained.  He concluded that there were no objections from the technical statutory consultees and he asked that permission be granted. 

One of the Ward Members, Councillor Gina Seaton, expressed her concern at the danger of increased traffic at the junction of the A30 and Camp Road which had been highlighted previously by a Planning Inspector. 

The other Ward Member, Councillor Nicola Clark, noted the objections raised by the East  ...  view the full minutes text for item 134.