To consider the following application:

18/505151/REM, Land at Stones Farm, The Street, Bapchild, Kent ME9 9AD

Members of the public are advised to confirm with Planning Services prior to the meeting that the applications will be considered at this meeting.

Requests to speak on this item must be registered with Democratic Services (democraticservices@swale.gov.uk or call us on 01795 417328) by noon on Wednesday 27 May 2020.

Additional information has been added to this item which might be referred to at this evening’s meeting.

Reports shown in previous Minutes as being deferred from that Meeting

The Senior Planning Officer introduced the application and reminded Members that the application had been reported to the Planning Committee on 3 October 2019.  Following the resolution at that meeting, an independent highway consultant had been instructed to assess the highway matters within the remit of this reserved matters application.  An extremely thorough review had been carried out and the Senior Planning Officer considered the amendments to the scheme were acceptable.  In terms of environmental issues he referred to paragraph 6.12, on page 33 of the agenda and reported that the Swale Borough Council (SBC) Environmental Protection Team had no objection to the application.

Julian Moat, the Applicant, spoke in support of the application.

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

The Ward Member referred to a letter from Bapchild Parish Council outlining why they wanted the application to be brought back to the Planning Committee.  She said that there had been a substantial set of changes to the design and layout of the scheme following meetings with herself, the Parish Council, the developer and officers, to look at the permeability of the estate.  The Ward Member said the consultants report had been revealing and had resulted in an improved design and layout.  She referred to the original Lansdowne Primary School application, agreed in January 2017, for the multi-purpose pitch and drop-off point which would minimise parking issues in the Stones Farm development, and said that detailed travel movements through the estate had yet to be agreed.  She said the consultants had not been able to make any assessment of traffic data, and that this road was in fact a spine road through the estate.  She stated that this was a fundamental issue which she wanted the Committee to consider.  She also wanted the conditions attached to the application to be considered, including the parking strategy, and stated that it was a private road, and would not be adopted by Kent County Council (KCC).  She considered it too late to wait until the first house was occupied.  The Ward Member also requested the full environmental conditions to be considered to meet the Council’s climate emergency policy.

In response to some questions, the Senior Planning Officer advised that there were some instances on the previous layout where refuse vehicles had to reverse a relatively small amount over the recommended distance to collect waste.  As a result, turning areas had been amended and this issue had been resolved throughout the development.  He also confirmed that, as a Member had set-out, there were two elements to the Lansdowne School drop-off area, and there had been a separate application which granted planning permission for the drop-off area within the school boundary.  He explained that the outline permission approved the principle of the access through the site to where it met the school boundary.  This reserved matters application was required to provide details of the access up to the boundary, which was what was being proposed.  Therefore he considered these issues were now resolved.  The Senior Planning Officer said that he was aware of the letter referred to by the Ward Member, but had not been sent a copy directly from the Parish Council.

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

·         Concerned with the road going from the A2 to the back of the estate and the capacity of the A2 to facilitate such a large increase in housing;

·         could a link road from the Easthall Farm estate to the north be created?;

·         the matters raised at the meeting in October 2019 had now been resolved, and there was no reason to refuse the application.

In response, the Senior Planning Officer said that the extent of the reserved matters application being considered did not reach as far north as the railway line, which effectively formed the boundary between this site and Easthall Farm, and therefore it would not be relevant to this application.  The Head of Planning stated that this could be looked at as part of the Local Plan review process.  In terms of access, the Senior Planning Officer confirmed that this was not a reserved matter as it benefitted from detailed consent, the impacts had already been considered by KCC Highways and Transportation and SBC, and this was not a matter for debate now.

Resolved:  That application 18/505151/REM be approved subject to conditions (1) to (15) in the report.