MINUTES of the Extraordinary Parish Council meeting held in the School, Back Lane, on Thursday 7 April 2016 commencing at 7pm at Newburgh School.
PRESENT Cllr J Citarella, Chairman.
Cllrs J O’Keefe, R Richardson, P Atty, H Flight and the Parish Clerk, S Jones.
Borough Cllr Pope and five members of the public attended.
050/16
TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from Cllr Porter, Cllr Moore and Cllr Turner.
051/16
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No interests were declared.
052/16
ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING FOR PUBLIC DISCUSSION
The meeting was adjourned for public discussion, after the Chair explained that the reason for holding the extraordinary meeting was that two planning applications had been received for consideration and the deadline for a response was before the next scheduled Parish Council meeting on 27 April.
Borough Cllr Pope informed the meeting that the Danes End application had been called in to the Planning Committee for a decision.
All members of the public attending the meeting had an interest in the Danes End application.
Concerns raised about the Danes End application referred to the size of the new proposed barn to be built on Green Belt land, the visual impact on the local landscape and fears that the building would dominate the local area, doubts over the need for a building of that size and whether the rural economy would benefit from the development of such a large building on the Green Belt. Other concerns mentioned a lack of clarity on the planning application over waste water disposal and how it would discharge onto the land.
Clarification was given over the location of the proposed building, which would be situated 3m from the existing building. The member of the public stated that the visual impact may have been reduced had the dividing hedge between neighbouring properties not been cut. Other residents living nearby had voiced their support for the planning application.
The meeting was reconvened.
053/16
PLANNING
a) Application Update
2016/0228/FUL – Erection of agricultural building at Danes End, Back Lane
Councillors had previously been sent information from the Planning Working Group about the main points of this application. It was explained that the Planning Working Group examines all Newburgh Parish planning applications and sends an initial view to the Parish Councillors prior to a meeting for consideration. Parish Councillors are encouraged to look at the planning applications themselves to see whether they have any other issues or concerns they wish to raise when the meeting takes place. It was confirmed that a previous application for this building under permitted development had been withdrawn following advice from the Planning Officer. Following discussion, it was resolved to submit the following comment:
Newburgh Parish Council supports the principle of agricultural business development in the Green Belt. We question whether the scale of the proposal in relation to other buildings on the site is appropriate in the Green Belt.
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2016/0249/FUL – Demolition of temporary office block and erection of extension to existing building to allow classroom accommodation and assorted facilities at Red Apple Nursery, Cobbs Brow Lane.
It was confirmed that an earlier application had been submitted, but refused on the grounds of inappropriate development resulting in harm to the openness and visual amenity of the Green Belt and that no special circumstances had been demonstrated. The Planning Working Group had looked at the new application and it was clear that pre-application advice from the Planning Officer had resulted in a design for a smaller building and special circumstances had been demonstrated by declaring that the building was needed to further the charitable and educational aims of the project located there. Following discussion it was resolved to make no comment on this application.
054/16
DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING
The next Council Meeting will be on 27 April 2016 at 7.30pm.
The meeting finished at 7.30pm.
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