The Chairman outlined the emergency evacutation procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 August 2021 (Minute Nos. 197 - 201) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 August 2021 (Minute Nos. 197 – 201) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interests (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c)           Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider the attached report (Parts 2, 3 and 5.)

The Council operates a scheme of public speaking at meetings of the Planning Committee. All applications on which the public has registered to speak will be taken first. Requests to speak at the meeting must be registered with Democratic Services (democraticservices@swale.gov.uk or Call 01795 417328) by noon on Wednesday 15 August 2021.

PART 2

Applications for which PERMISSION is recommended.

The Major Projects Officer introduced and outlined the application for Members. He made Members aware that he was proposing two additional conditions to be added and sought delegated authority to do so. The first condition was to restrict the opening hours of the proposed commercial unit to not operate after 11pm and to not open before 7am. The second condition was to prevent over-looking from the balconies to units 5 and 11 by requiring the provision of obscure-glazed screens to the side balconies facing Frederick Street. He also informed Members that there had been an error in the numbering of conditions and as a result there were two fewer conditions than numbered in the report.

The Ward Member spoke against the application.

The Chairman moved the officer recommendation to approve the application and this was seconded by the Vice-Chairman.

Members were invited to debate the application and comments raised included:

·      Ideal site to build on and was happy to see something happening to the site, however had concerns that it was too close to the A2;

·      Concerned about the limited amount of parking;

·      development was close to the town centre including transport links;

·      concerned with the height of the building in the location;

·      the development was the same height as the church tower opposite and adjacent flats;

·      the plan did not show enough electric charging ports for the number of dwellings proposed;

·      concerned that the electric charging ports may not be up to an acceptable minimum wattage output to charge domestic electric cars, 7 Kilowatts per hour and asked if an amendment could be made to the condition asking for 7 Kilowatt chargers to be installed;

·      wanted to see more plants and wildflowers grown on top of the roofs to create a better rooftop garden, rather than the planted area being limited to just a part of the proposed roof;

·      concerned that the rooftop garden would overlook neighbouring streets and gardens because the development was relatively tall; and

·      were the parking spaces allocated to specific properties or were they unrestricted use?

In response to Members’ concerns the Major Projects Officer outlined to Members that the A2 road adjacent to the development and Hawthorn Road were both adopted by Kent County Council (KCC) highways and they had raised no concerns or safety issues for pedestrians with this development. He added that each parking space would have an electric charging port installed and would not see any problem with Members amending the relevant condition so that as well as amending it to refer to the parking spaces, not dwellings it also required the charging ports to provide a minimum 7 kilowatts per  ...  view the full minutes text for item 289.