MELBOURN PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES
Draft Minutes subject to formal ratification at the next Planning Meeting.
Minutes of a Planning Committee Meeting held on Monday, 21st March 2011 at the Parish Office, Melbourn Village College, The Moor at 7.15pm.
Present: Cllrs. M. Sherwen (Chairman), R. Gatward, J. Hales, M. Linnette, A. Mulcock, P. Simmonett and R. Wakerley.
In Attendance: The Clerk and four members of the public
783/10 Apologies for Absence: Cllrs. Brett and Mowatt.
784/10 Declaration of Interests: Cllr. Hales declared a Personal and Prejudicial interest in Item 751/10 as he had family living in the village.
Cllrs, Gatward, Sherwen and Simmonett declared a Personal and Prejudicial interest in Item 793/10 (a) and (b) as they are friends and acquaintances of the owners of a property adjacent to the subject of these planning applications.
785/10 Minutes of the meeting held on 7th March 2011:
It was proposed by Cllr. Hales, seconded by Cllr. Simmonett and agreed that the minutes should be signed as a true record.
786/10 Matters Arising: There were no matters arising.
[The next two items were taken out of order]
792/10 Notifications or planning consultation documents:
(a) SCDC – 12 Beeton Close. Porch. S/2303/10. Permission Granted.
(b) SCDC – Land at and including, 9 The Lawns. Dwelling. S/1963/10. Permission Granted.
(c) There were no further Notifications or Planning Consultations received.
[Cllrs. Gatward, Sherwen and Simmonett having declared a Personal and Prejudicial Interest in the next two items(a and b) for reasons stated under Item 784/10 left the room at this point.]
[As the Chairman had declared a Personal and Prejudicial interest he left the room the chair was taken by Cllr. Hale]
793/10 Planning Applications:
The letter from Mrs Mavis Howard was discussed at the same time as the following planning applications were dealt with.
(a) The Pink Geranium, 25 Station Road. Change of use from Restaurant (A3) to Dwelling (C3) & Extension, Outbuildings & Garage/Outbuilding. S/1983/10. AMENDMENT. Changes to carport. Changes to extension including fenestration, footprint and roof changes. Changes to outbuilding at the entrance.
Recommend Approval with comments. The Committee approve the application, but subject to the provision of a turning area for the existing property and this application. Concerns over vehicles reversing onto Station Road, causing a danger to traffic, are paramount.
(b) Land Adjacent to 25 Station Road. New Dwelling. S/1981/10. AMENDMENT. Changes to roof type, ridge height and eves height.
Recommend Refusal on the grounds that the proposal is not in keeping with Conservation Area, the proposal is too tall, too close to existing properties and too far forward relative to adjacent properties.
[At this point Cllrs. Gatward, Sherwen and Simmonett returned to the meeting and the Chairman, Cllr Sherwen took back the chair]
787/10 Village Car Park:
Cllr. Sherwen reported that he had circulated all the points raised by Councillors which will now be sent to Cllr. Brett to forward to the Huck Partnership. Cllr. Wakerley wanted an increase in disabled car parking spaces. He would like the 2 planned spaces to be increased to 4 spaces.
Cllr. Brett is to submit this to Huck Partnership for their comments prior to a further meeting.
Cllr. Mulcock said that in December a draft list of points had been raised, these numbered 24. Now there were only 12 points being submitted to Huck Partnership and he wished to know why this was so. Cllr. Sherwen said that one of the reasons why the number of points had been reduced was that some of the points were linked. It was proposed that nothing be sent to Huck Partnership at the moment and this be looked at again at the next Planning Meeting on 4th April. Councillors were asked if possible to provide evidence of their concerns and comments.
788/10 Police Site:
There is to be a meeting with Iceni Homes on 29th March at the Parish Office, commencing at 9.30am.
789/10 Heydon Grange Wind Farm:
At the present time there was nothing to report.
790/10 Village Green registrations:
At the present time there was no further information.
791/10 Discussion of SCDC proposal to use IT forum at Parish Council level:
The system has been updated, approved and consequently is now not available to the public.
794/10 Correspondence:
(a) Copy of letter to S. Anderson of CCC from Mr Larcombe. Lease for Parish Council office. Noted.
(b) E-mail to Mr Larcombe from Christian Wilson, Principal Management Surveyor for CCC – Lease to Parish Council subject to contract. Noted
(c) Copy of Letter from Mrs Mavis Howard to Planning Department of SCDC – New Dwelling. Land adjacent to 25 Station Road, Melbourn Ref No S/1981/10. This letter was dealt with under Item 793/10.
(d) There was no further correspondence received.
795/10 Urgent Matters:
Cllr. Linnette met with Justin from Herts & Cambs Ground Maintenance to discuss the type of fence needed on the boundary of the BMX Track and the neighbouring orchard. It had been suggested that a post and wire fence be erected but this would not be easy due to the wooded area. Instead it was suggested that concrete posts be erected at three metre intervals. Cllr. Linnette thought that if these posts were placed a metre back from the boundary line, this will define the boundary and leave room for maintenance plus hedging if thought necessary. The Clerk is to send a letter to the owner of the orchard informing him of this action.
There being no other business the Chairman closed the meeting at 8.40pm