Agenda item

Report by Head of Place, Property and Regeneration (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration (circulated previously) regarding approval of North Devon Council (Off Street Parking Places) Order and Subsequent Proposed Amendment to Account for the Change to Long Stay Car Park at Seven Brethren.

The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration highlighted the following:

·         There were two elements to this report, a letter of objection received from the National Trust and the relocation of the long stay car park at Seven Brethren.

·         A hybrid planning permission had been granted in November 2022 which included full planning permission for the relocation of the long stay car park.

·         At its meeting of 5 December 2022 the Strategy and Resources Committee agreed to approve the North Devon (Off Street Parking Places) Order 2023.

·         In accordance with this the Council consulted with statutory consultees and published all relevant notices in the North Devon Gazette on 11 January 2023.

·         The Council received a number of objections to the proposal to allow motorhomes in Croyde car park and so in response to this the proposal was removed from the Off Street Parking Places Order.

·         A letter was received from the National Trust in relation to the proposal to allow motorhomes at the Council’s Mortehoe car park, which was leased from the National Trust.  The National Trust considered that this was a breach of the Council’s lease of that car park and therefore, in light of this, the  proposal was removed from the Off Street Parking Places Order.

·         The objections were not considered controversial and the Council served the Notice of Making for the Off Street Parking Places Order on 7 February 2023 due to come into force on 15 March 2023.  The Off Street Parking Places Order was shown at Appendix A of the report.

·         The planning permission was for the replacement of the long stay car park (including number of spaces) on a like for like basis.  The proposed long stay car park and events area (temporary toleration site) had been designed to accommodate the loading requirements of the Fair, and to ensure no unnecessary obstacles that would further hamper its use.

·         On 7 December 2022, the Council entered into a conditional contract with Tarka Living Limited to deliver this scheme; to include the car park and the residential development, as detailed in paragraph 1.1 of the report.

·         The contract with Tarka Living Limited was programmed to go unconditional on 28 February 2023 with enabling works commencing on 28 March 2023.

·         The enabling works included the provision of the new long stay car park and this was programmed to be ready for operational use on the 1 July 2023.  The Development Agreement does not allow work to commence on the current long stay car park until the new car park was in place (to ensure continuous provision) and required the existing car park to be available for the 2023 Fair should the new car park not be ready.

·         Alongside the provision of the relocated car park, it was necessary to amend the Off Street Parking Places Order to acknowledge the new location of the Seven Brethren car park.  The location of both the existing car park and its new location were identified on a plan shown at Appendix B of the report.

In response to a question on why an Environmental Assessment report had not been completed alongside this report, the Chief Executive explained that this report was not seeking to approve works to be carried out but the inclusion of a car park in the Off Street Parking Places Order.

The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration took on board a correction to the Cheyne Beach car park detailed on page 155 of the agenda to make it clear there was no pay and display meter at the car park but was permit holders only and that this would be reflected in the order.

The Chief Executive confirmed that car parks that may be currently out of use were to remain in the order to allow for when they came back into use.

RESOLVED that:

(a)  The North Devon (Off Street Parking Places) Order 2023 be approved ahead of coming into force on 15 March 2023; and

(b)  Delegated authority be given to the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration, in consultation with the Leader and the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, to amend the Off Street Parking Order to reflect the new position of the Seven Brethren car park (once work had completed), following the conclusion of the consultation period required.