Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies were received from Cllr C Adams, Cllr S Carr-Brown, Cllr J Challinor and Cllr G Martin.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications. 

Notice was received that the following members were appointed substitutes for this meeting:

Cllr B Dove for Cllr C Adams

Cllr P Canavan for Cllr S Carr-Brown

Cllr L Williams for Cllr J Challinor

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

The following declarations were made regarding Agenda Item 7 – Update in relation to Land South of Gillett Road, Talbot Village, Poole BH3 7AH

• Cllr M Gillett reported that due to his involvement in this application he would not speak or vote as a committee member. He withdrew to the public gallery for this item and addressed the committee in his role as ward councillor.
• At the start of Agenda Item 7 Cllr M Tarling explained that as he had not completed the site visit he had been unable to take part when the application had been considered on 2 October 2023. Having discussed his position with the Monitoring Officer, he would comment on the procedural aspects in relation to this item but would then withdraw to the public gallery once the Committee starting to debate its options and he would not speak or vote from that point.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2023, subject to the following amendment:

Clause 76        Holland House, 20 Oxford Road, Bournemouth BH8 8EF

Voting to read as follows: For – 13, Against – 0, Abstain – 1

The public and exempt minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2023 were agreed as a correct record for the Chair to sign, with the following amendment as set out on the agenda sheet:

Clause 76, Holland House, 20 Oxford Road, Bournemouth BH8 8EF

Voting to read as follows: For – 13, Against – 0, Abstain – 1

Voting: Unanimous

To receive any requests to speak on planning applications which the Planning Committee is considering at this meeting.

The deadline for the submission of requests to speak is 10.00am of the working day before the meeting. Requests should be submitted to Democratic Services using the contact details on the front of this agenda.

Further information about how public speaking is managed at meetings is contained in the Planning Committee Protocol for Public Speaking and Statements, a copy of which is included with this agenda sheet and is also published on the website on the following page:

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=290

Summary of speaking arrangements as follows:

Speaking at Planning Committee (in person or virtually):

·       There will be a maximum combined time of five minutes to speak in objection and up to two persons may speak within the five minutes.

·       There will be a further maximum combined time of five minutes to speak in support and up to two persons may speak within the five minutes.

·       No speaker may speak for more than half this time (two and a half minutes) UNLESS there are no other requests to speak received by the deadline OR it is with the agreement of the other speaker.

Submitting a statement to Planning Committee as an alternative to speaking:

·       Anyone who has registered to speak by the deadline may, as an alternative to attending/speaking in person or virtually, submit a written statement to be read out on their behalf.

·       Statements must be provided to Democratic Services by 10.00am of the working day before the meeting.

·       A statement must not exceed 450 words (and will be treated as amounting to two and a half minutes of speaking time).

Please refer to the full Protocol document for further guidance.

Note: The public speaking procedure is separate from and is not intended to replicate or replace the procedure for submitting a written representation on a planning application to the Planning Offices during the consultation period.

The Chair advised that there were a number of requests to speak on the planning application as detailed below.

To consider the planning application which is listed below.

See planning application report ‘6a’ circulated with the agenda, as updated by the agenda addendum sheet to be published one working day before the meeting.

Councillors are requested where possible to submit any technical questions on planning applications to the Case Officer at least 48 hours before the meeting to ensure this information can be provided at the meeting.

The running order in which planning applications will be considered will be as listed on this agenda sheet.

The Chair retains discretion to propose an amendment to the running order at the meeting if it is considered expedient to do so.

Members will appreciate that the copy drawings attached to planning application reports are reduced from the applicants’ original and detail, in some cases, may be difficult to read. To search for planning applications, the following link will take you to the main webpage where you can click on a tile (area) to search for an application.  The link is:

https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Planning-and-building-control/Search-and-comment-on-applications/Search-and-comment-on-applications.aspx

Councillors are advised that if they wish to refer to specific drawings or plans which are not included in these papers, they should contact the Case Officer at least 48 hours before the meeting to ensure that these can be made available.

To view Local Plans, again, the following link will take you to the main webpage where you can click on a tile to view the local plan for that area. The link is:

https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Planning-and-building-control/Planning-policy/Current-Local-Plans/Current-Local-Plan.aspx

The Committee considered a planning application report, a copy of which had been circulated and which appears as Appendix A to these minutes in the Minute Book. A Committee Addendum Sheet was published on 17 January 2023 and appears as Appendix B to these minutes.

Parkstone Ward

APP/23/00374/F

Construction of three new Padel Tennis Courts with flood lighting and provision of storage shed.

Parkstone Ward

APP/23/00374/F

Construction of three new Padel Tennis Courts with flood lighting and provision of storage shed.

Public Representations

Objectors

v  Christopher and Lesley Stracey

v  Graham and Roslin Reeves

Applicant/Supporters

v  Giles Moir

v  Mr A Crowe

Ward Councillors

v  None registered

RESOLVED to delegate to the Head of Planning to secure a legal agreement which prevents the implementation of permission APP/22/00830/F as well as this permission and then: 

Grant in accordance with the conditions as set out in the report for the reasons set out in the report. 

Voting: For – 12, Against – 0, Abstain – 1

On 2^nd October 2023 councillors determined to refuse a planning application, against officer recommendation,as identified in this report.  As part of the recommendation, power was delegated to Head of Planning to sort out final wording. 

The Applicant has now appealed the planning application on the grounds of non-determination before the Local Planning Authority issued the decision notice. This report updates Members on the current position andseeks confirmation from councillors as to how they wish the Council to proceed in relation to the appeal.

NOTE: In relation to this item of business, the Committee may be asked to consider the following resolution in respect of any legal advice provided and discussed at the meeting:

‘That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 5 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs such interest in disclosing the information.’

Paragraph 5 - Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

The Director of Planning and Destination introduced a report a copy of which had been circulated and which appears as Appendix C to the minutes in the Minute Book. An exempt supplement to the report was circulated in the Committee Addendum dated 17 January 2024.

The report provided an update to the Committee on the latest position in respect of an appeal against non determination of the planning application APP/22/01455/F for Land South of Gillett Road, Talbot Village, Poole. The Committee had decided to refuse the application against officer recommendation at its meeting on 2 October 2023 for the reasons set out in paragraph 2 of the report. The Director outlined the sequence of events following the October meeting up until the present time. The report set out the steps now required to prepare for the appeal and the associated timescales. The exempt supplement provided Counsel’s further advice on the Committee’s reasons for refusal, having now considered the views of external experts.

The Committee was asked to determine how it wished the Council to proceed in relation to the appeal. This included a number of options which were set out in paragraph 10 of the report as follows:

10.1 Members maintaining the position as currently appears i.e. that the appeal should be dismissed for the reasons as identified at the October 2023 Planning Committee meeting (albeit possibly with certain clarification relating to the reasons);

10.2 Members identifying different / reducing the number of reasons in respect of which it is considered the appeal should be dismissed; and

10.3 Members revising their position in opposing the application

Having discussed the Monitoring Officer’s advice on options for dealing with public and exempt information, there was a consensus from the Committee at this stage of the meeting to consider as much as possible in public session and avoid disclosing any exempt information.

The Chair invited ward and adjoining ward councillors to address the Committee – Cllrs Broadhead, Gillett, Rampton and Trent in person, Cllrs O Brown and Herrett by written statement. They raised a number of concerns around transparency, public perception and procedural matters, including criticism that a decision notice had not been issued despite due democratic process, that members were being directed to focus on the appeal and the threat of potential costs, that the advice of Counsel had only been issued yesterday, was not available to the public and did not include the reports of the external experts or their briefs. They also put forward a number of suggestions to strengthen or add to the grounds for refusal, including additional factors impacting adversely on the heath including a right of way (Footpath 33) and that the failure to review the Poole Local Plan by 2023 (as detailed in paragraphs 1.16 to 1.20 of the Plan) could add weight to the consideration of the emerging BCP Local Plan at the appeal.

The Chair considered an exchange of views from committee members on whether to permit a request to speak from a member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87.