Agenda item
Brent Local Plan - Development Management Policies & Minor Alterations to Core Strategy
This report presents a draft Development Management Policies document, a proposed set of minor alterations to the Core Strategy and proposed changes to the Proposals Map of Brent’s Local Plan. Members are asked to recommend to Executive that these be agreed for public consultation starting in May 2014.
I have produced the appendix to the report separately and sent copies to members only. Few spares are available for inspection on request. Please contact the Democratic Services Officer for assistance.
Decision:
(i) that Executive be recommended to agree the draft Development Management Policies document, and the proposed Minor Alterations to the Core Strategy and changes to the Proposals Map, for public consultation starting on 26 May 2014 for 6 weeks;
(ii) that the Strategic Director, Regeneration & Growth be authorised to make further editorial changes to the document prior to finally issuing it for public consultation.
Minutes:
The Committee received a report that presented a draft Development Management Policies document (DMPD), a proposed set of Minor Alterations to the Core Strategy, and proposed changes to the Proposals Map of Brent’s Local Plan. Ken Hullock, Head of Planning and Transport Strategy explained that the reasons for producing the Development Management Policies document was to bring up-to-date the Unitary Development Policy (UDP policy), first drafted in 2000 and adopted in 2004.
He continued that the DMPD was the final step in drawing up the folder of Development Plan Documents (DPDs) that would make up the borough’s development plan and as the basis for determining planning applications would ultimately supersede the UDP. Members heard that this round of consultation on the draft Development Management Policies document would provide an opportunity for the community and businesses to comment on the policies. He then outlined the key changes, drawing attention to the following;
Betting shops, Pawnbrokers/Payday Loans
It was proposed that a cap should be set to prevent an overconcentration of and clustering of Betting shops, Pawnbrokers/Payday Loans. He continued that in order to ensure these uses did not dominate any single length of frontage, a limit on the proximity of these uses to each other was proposed. Members heard that given the rapid increase in the number of these uses and the need for expedient action, consideration should be given to introducing an Article 4 Direction, to remove national permitted development rights. Introducing an Article 4 Direction has financial implications in terms of loss of fees and potential compensation claims and it was therefore recommended that a more detailed report on the implications be submitted to a future Planning Committee meeting for members’ consideration.
Takeaways
To promote healthy eating and support the Brent Obesity Strategy (2010) it was proposed to introduce a policy which prevented an overconcentration of takeaways and restricted their proximity to schools.
Shisha Cafes
It was proposed to restrict the proximity of shisha cafes to schools. This proposal was in light of the evidence from the Brent Young Persons Cigarette and Shisha Audit (2012) which found that students from a school in Brent that had more than one shisha café within a 0.5 mile radius were twice as likely to be current shisha smokers than students from schools that had no shisha cafés within a 0.5 mile radius.
Frontage
It was proposed that the limit on the proportion of primary frontage in non-retail use be increased from 35% to 40%, in recognition that projected demand for comparison floorspace had reduced and that with the exception of Ealing Road Brent’s town centres were currently exceeding the limit
Retail impact assessment
It was proposed that a local threshold that would require retail impact assessment be set at 500sqm, as it was felt that the national threshold of 2,500sqm would potentially allow developments which could cause harm Brent’s town centres.
Visitor accommodation
Conditions would be applied to ensure visitor accommodation was not permanently occupied by requiring applications for hotel development to be accompanied by an Accessibility Management Plan.
Protection of open spaces
The revised Policies Map circulated with the report showed all open space of local value that should be protected.
Local Employment Sites
A more flexible approach was proposed in policy DMP31 for Local Employment Sites of up to the maximum threshold of 7.5ha to be released with the intention of allowing these sites to contribute to housing supply, and meet the identified need for affordable workspace in the borough.
Ken Hullock informed members that wide publicity would be given to the six week long public consultation with advertisement in the local press and the Brent Magazine. Leaflets would be made available in the Council’s libraries and published on the Council’s website.
In response to members’ questions, Claire Jones, Planning Policy Officer stated that currently the UDP had no specific policy for controlling betting shops pawnbrokers/payday loans. To counter that, it was proposed to introduce a policy in the DMDPD and consider also taking forward an Article 4 Direction which would remove national permitted development rights that allowed betting shops to open without the need for planning permission in units previously used by restaurants and cafés (A3), drinking establishments (A4) and hot food takeaways (A5). Members heard that it was not possible to control the sale of “paan” tobacco as there were no controls on what could be sold within A1 retail use. Officers clarified that although there was no local policy on crematoriums, there was a national policy on minimum distances between a crematorium and residential properties.
In reference to the document setting out the list of locally listed buildings members sought a justification for the proposal not to add The Queensbury in Walm Lane to the list. Members were informed that the building was suffering from deterioration and as it was not considered a sufficiently unique building, it was not worthy of protection. Officers clarified that policy DMP39 introduced a minimum dwelling size for all houses where a conversion was proposed. Additionally, a new policy DMP44 had been introduced which would resist the loss of social infrastructure without adequate justification or provision for its replacement in terms of equivalent quantity and quality.
Concern was expressed about noise nuisance caused by minicabs and obstruction to highways and pavements caused by skip trucks during construction and officers were asked to convey this to the Environment and Neighbourhoods so that it could be considered as part of any review of the operation of this service. Officers were also requested to print copies of the policy map in A3 sizes for members.
RESOLVED:
(i) that Executive be recommended to agree the draft Development Management Policies document, and the proposed Minor Alterations to the Core Strategy and changes to the Proposals Map, for public consultation starting on 26 May 2014 for 6 weeks;
(ii) that the Strategic Director, Regeneration & Growth be authorised to make further editorial changes to the document prior to finally issuing it for public consultation.
Supporting documents: