Agenda and minutes

*DM&L 19      

Apologies were received from Cllr R E Baldwin for whom Cllr B Lamb acted as substitute and Cllr L J G Hockridge for whom Cllr A F Leech acted as substitute.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting.

[If Councillors have any questions relating to predetermination, bias or interests in items on this Agenda, then please contact the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting]    

*DM&L 20      

Members were invited to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered and the following were made:

Cllr T G Pearce declared a personal interest in all applications, by virtue of being a Member of the Devon Building Control Partnership.  He remained in the meeting and took part in the debate and vote on each item.

Meeting held on 22 August 2017

*DM&L 21      

The Minutes of the Development Management and Licensing Committee Meeting held on 22 August 2017 were confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record, subject to inclusion of the following amendments:-

1.       That Cllrs L J G Hockridge and G Parker be included in the list of those Committee Members present at this meeting;

2.       That Cllrs D E Moyse and J Yelland be removed from the list of those Committee Members present at this meeting;

3.       That Cllr L J G Hockridge declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in application numbers 1433/17/VAR and 2456/16/FUL by virtue of his business benefitting from visitors to the application site and proceeded to leave the meeting room during consideration of these planning applications; and

4.       That Cllr Mott be removed from the list of those speakers who had been invited to address the meeting during application numbers 1433/17/VAR and 2456/16/FUL.

*DM&L 22      

The Senior Specialist Development Management presented the latest set of Performance Indicators and outlined the key information for Members consideration. 

In discussion, reference was made to:-

-          an acknowledgement that the use of time extensions was playing a fundamental role in ensuring that major planning applications were being determined in time;

-          a recruitment and selection exercise was underway to appoint an additional Enforcement Specialist Officer;

-          the trend whereby planning income had decreased in comparison to last year, whereas the number of planning applications had increased.  It was noted that, whilst this trend illustrated that fewer major planning applications were being received by the Council, there had been a considerable increase in minor applications validated;

-          a request (in future reports) for the figures used on some of the indicators to be adjusted to remove reference to a quarter (and a half) of an application/case; and

-          the ongoing review of the Performance Measures Task and Finish Group.  In highlighting the relevance to the Committee of the Development Management aspects of the review, it was agreed that Cllr Roberts would support Cllr Cheadle in progressing this matter.

To see Letters of Representation and further supplementary information relating to any of the planning applications on the agenda, please select the following link and enter the relevant Reference number: http://westdevon.gov.uk/searchlanding

*DM&L 23      

The Committee considered the applications prepared by the Development Management Specialists and considered also the comments of Town and Parish Councils together with other representations received, which were listed within the presented agenda reports and summarised below, and RESOLVED:

(a)     Application No:  1987/17/FUL        Ward: Exbourne

Site Address: Hayfield House, Hayfield Road, Exbourne EX20 3RS

Erection of a two-storey 3 bedroomed house, a separate single garage and parking for 2 vehicles

RECOMMENDATION:            Conditional Approval

Following a detailed officer presentation, it became evident during the subsequent Member questions that there was an apparent discrepancy over the site plans.

Following a short adjournment, the Chairman advised that, in the absence of any revised site plans, it would be wholly inappropriate for the Committee to determine the application at this meeting.  It was therefore agreed that this application should be deferred for consideration at a future meeting.

For completeness, the Chairman gave each of the registered speakers the option to either address the Committee at this meeting or to wait until the application was re-presented.  In response, each registered speaker confirmed that they would take their opportunity at the future meeting when the application was re-considered.

COMMITTEE DECISION:  Deferral

*DM&L 24      

The Committee received and noted the updated list of Planning Appeals including enforcement appeals.

In so doing, reference was made to:-

(a)     the appeal decision at Land South Of North Road, Lifton.  In highlighting that the applicant had been awarded partial costs, the Chairman and officers stressed the difficulty of being able to substantiate a refusal reason on highways grounds for those applications when County Highways had raised no objections.  As a consequence, the Committee was asked to continually bear this point in mind during its future deliberations.

In relation to the role of County Highways, some Members expressed their frustrations at the lack of highways related objections that were coming forward.  In reply, officers acknowledged these concerns but also advised that the National Planning Policy Framework had made it even harder for highways colleagues to raise legitimate objections.  In making their recommendations, it was noted that the almost sole focus for Highways Officers to be able to raise an objection had to be concerned with whether or not an application would have a ‘severe impact’ on the highway.

In conclusion, the Committee Chairman gave a commitment to invite a Senior County Highways Officer to undertake a presentation and respond to Member questions at a future briefing session;

(b)     Conservation Areas.  In lamenting some recent appeal decisions, a Member was of the view that the integrity of Conservation Areas in the West Devon area was being destroyed.