PRESENT:  Councillors Tim Gibson (Chairman), Cameron Beart, Monique Bonney, Simon Clark, Mike Dendor, James Hall, Carole Jackson, Elliott Jayes, Peter Marchington, Ben J Martin, Paul Stephen, Tim Valentine and Tony Winckless.

OFFICERS PRESENT:   Megan Harris, Andrew Jeffers, Bob Pullen and Andrew Spiers.

APOLOGIES: Councillors James Hunt, Benjamin A Martin and David Simmons.

The Chairman welcomed the Applicant’s Agent, representatives of Minster-on-Sea Parish Council and members of the public to the meeting.

The Planner explained that the application was in respect of an outline application with access matters sought for the erection of up-to five dwellings on the land to the south of Chequers Road, Minster-on-Sea.  All other matters were reserved for future consideration.  The site lay close to the built-up area boundary of Minster (the built-up area boundary runs along the northern side of Chequers Road), and as such, was considered to lie in open countryside.

The Planner said that an appeal had been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate against non-determination which had been validated.  The Planning Committee therefore needed to decide at the next Planning Committee meeting scheduled for 17 September 2020, what their decision on this application would have been had an appeal not been lodged.

It was noted that no objections to the application had been made by statutory consultees, although Minster-on-Sea Parish Council had raised objections. 

Representatives from Minister-on-Sea Parish Council made the following points: 

• Site was not part of the urban area;
• granting permission would encourage more applications for similar developments on greenfield sites/ribbon development;
• gain in housing to meet national targets was negligible;
• would create merging of settlements in a countryside area;
• adverse impact on undeveloped land;
• Isle of Sheppey was far from lagging behind in providing new sites for residential development;
• should maintain a countryside gap between rural and urban Minster;
• Swale Borough Council (SBC) needed to take parish council objections seriously;
• risk of giving green light to ribbon development between Minster and Eastchurch; and
• appreciated Planning Committee members taking the time to visit the site. 

A Ward Member made the following points:

• Development was proposed in open countryside;
• development would have negligible effect on housing supply; and
• Chequers Road contained the only speed camera on the Isle of Sheppey demonstrating that it was considered a dangerous road, and the road had recently been subject to a Speedwatch scheme. 

A member of the public made the following points:

• No notices of planning application had been placed in Chequers Road or surrounding streets;
• site not included in Local Plan – SBC should abide by their own Plan;
• access to the site was dangerous;
• tree removed to make development look more palatable; and
• other sites on the Isle of Sheppey were far more appropriate to housing development than this one. 

The Applicant’s Agent made the following points: 

• When Councils could not demonstrate a five year housing supply they must be prepared to consider development on sites outside of the Local Plan provision in order to meet that demand;
• the site would not join-up development to existing sites; and
• views from the development would not exclusively be of open countryside as other developments were taking place on adjacent sites. 

Members raised the following issues: 

• The application was solely about access and it was a shame KCC were not present;
• concerned regarding safety issues on the footpath alongside the development site on Chequers Road; and
• it was established that there were no Tree Preservation Orders relating to the site. 

Members viewed the application site with officers.