Issue - meetings

Report by Senior Planning Officer (North) (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Senior Planning Officer (North) (circulated previously).

The Lead Planning Officer (North) addressed the Committee and advised:

·         The application was called in by the Ward Member; Councillor Gubb.

·         The plans show the three proposed open-market dwellings to the North of the site. Each had a small front garden (to the South) and a decking area to the rear.

·         There had been no representations from the home owners of the properties in front of the site. There was a distance between the existing and proposed properties which included the parking spaces.

·         The site was included within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) however it was within a developed area of Combe Martin.

·         The archaeology report had been accepted by Devon County Council (DCC).

·         A Section 106 agreement would be required.

·         The parking provision of two spaces per dwelling was acceptable.

·         The main issue with the application was in regards to the highways.

·         The site access was a narrow sloped access road from the A399.

·         The access route had inadequate visibility.

·         The site would create 18 to 24 additional vehicle movements per day.

·         The opinion of was that the application did not comply with Policy DM05 of the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan and had significant impact on the highway.

·         An access width of 4.1m was the standard of a private drive. The width of the proposed access to the site would be 3.3m

·         The Highways consideration (covered on pages 38 to 40 of the agenda) was read out (in part) to the Committee.

John Woodward (agent) addressed the Committee.

In response to questions from the Committee, Paul Young of Devon County Council (DCC) Highways confirmed:

·         DCC Highways had raised a number of objections.  The objection in relation to the drainage on site had now been resolved.

·         The main issue was the access onto the highway. The junction had poor visibility from the access road to the A399. To the immediate west was on-street parking which provided parking for up to one hour.  This was well used and cars were able to park overnight at the location. When vehicles were parked the available visibility was reduced to 12 metres.

·         The preferred width of an access road was 4.1m. The proposed access would be only 3.3m. This was sub-standard.

·         The gradient of the access would be 1 in 7; increasing to 1 in 4 / 1 in 5. The preferred standard was 1 in 15.  If there was any rain or ice on the road surface it would be difficult to access the site.

·         The access radii was substandard on to the A399. Vehicles would have to straddle the centre of the A399 to gain access or encroach on to the yellow hatch area outside the fire station.

·         Despite the fact that there had been no recorded accidents for the junction over the past five years, the lack of data did not prove that the location was safe. Highways maintained that the proposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7