Agenda item

Granted planning permission, subject to the legal agreement and conditions and informatives as set out in the original committee report, and referral of the application to the Mayor of London for his Stage 2 response.

PROPOSAL:

Hybrid planning application comprising:-

Outline planning permission for the demolition of existing buildings and structures on the site, all site preparation works and redevelopment to provide new buildings to accommodate new homes (Use Class C3), flexible commercial uses, new basement level, associated cycle and vehicle parking, new vehicular accesses, associated highway works to Beresford Avenue, landscaping and creation of new public and private open space, ancillary facilitating works, various temporary meanwhile uses, interim works and infrastructure with all matters reserved - appearance, access, landscaping, layout and scale.

Detailed planning permission for Phase 3 (Buildings G, H and J) for the demolition of existing buildings and structures, all site preparation and infrastructure works and the development of new homes (Use Class C3) and flexible commercial floorspace; together with new basement level, associated storage, cycle and vehicle parking, new vehicular accesses, associated highway works to Beresford Avenue, landscaping and creation of new public and private open space, ancillary facilitating works.

RECOMMENDATION:

To resolve to grant planning permission, subject to the Stage 2 referral to the Mayor of London and subject to the completion of a satisfactory Section 106 or other legal agreement to secure the matters set out within the reports, the conditions and informatives recommended in this report, and to delegate authority to the Head of Planning or other duly authorised person to agree the exact terms thereof on advice from the Chief Legal Officer.

That the Head of Planning is granted delegated authority to negotiate the legal agreement indicated above.

That the Head of Planning is granted delegated authority to issue the planning permission and impose conditions to secure the matters set out within the reports.

Messrs Colin Leadbeatter, Neil Quinn and Liam McFadden (Principal Planning Officers) introduced the report, set out the key issues and answered Members’ questions.  In reference to the supplementary report, Mr Leadbeatter drew the following salient matters of clarification to Members’ attention:

·           The number of dual aspect homes would be increased to 61% within Phase 3 of the development, rather than across the outline consent.

·           The financial contribution secured under the original s106 agreement for improvements to Stonebridge Park station would be £2m not £4.6m stated.

·           To clarify, £4.6m was secured towards bus service enhancements under the original s106 agreement.

·           All trees and hedgerows have already removed under the extant Masterplan consent. 

He then outlined the various phases of the revised Masterplan that now included additional 330 homes with commensurate increase in affordable homes (35%), compliant with the emerging housing policy.  Members heard about additional communal space provisions, improvements to public open space, provision of community centre and a nursery, significantly higher landscaping and CIL contributions of £73million.

Ms Claire Hammond (Land Director of the applicant St George) addressed the Committee and answered Members’ questions on several matters including mix of tenure, affordable homes, traffic and parking.  She provided the following updates on the delivery of the proposed development:

·                Phase 1 of the scheme, well advanced, would provide 400 homes of which 114 would be affordable and ready for residents to move into later this year. 

·                Phase 1 would also deliver 5,000 sqft community centre that will open in 2022 with the Grand Union Development Trust established to provide strategic management for the community centre.  There would be a new commercial and leisure space including a nursery and food shop.

·                The applicant had delivered highways improvements to the Old North Circular road more than 2 years ahead of the S106 deadline.

·                In addition to over £8.5million paid in CIL and S106 contributions, the construction works had employed 81 local people. 

·                The revised masterplan would deliver high quality amenity space, additional homes of which 35% would be affordable and a mix of 3-bed or more family homes and a quarter of those at affordable rent.

·                The number of dual aspect homes has also improved.  For Phase 3, this has increased from 53% to 61% and for the remaining phases, the design allows for maximisation of dual aspect homes.

During question time, Members raised several issues to which officers submitted the following responses:

·                The proposed development would provide high quality industrial space with no loss of employment space.

·                As the CCG initially did not take up the offer of the health care facility within the timeframes in the original legal agreement, officers had rebuilt the relevant clauses into the S106 legal agreement to require the applicant to re-offer the 800sqm facility to the CCG.

·                The updated transport assessment showed that there would be no material impact.  In addition, there would be contributions for highway study, and improvements to Stonebridge Park station and that any capacity increase can be addressed without changes to those secured under the extant planning permission.

·                The applicant would submit parking management plan as part of the car parking controls in the detail submission under reserved matters application.

·                There would be small decreases in compliance levels regarding daylight, but these would be comparable to other similar schemes in the borough and the benefits are considered to outweigh the harm.

·                TfL capital spend was outside of the Committee or the Council’s controls, although the Bakerloo line upgrade to improve capacity was ongoing.

With no further issues raised and having established that all members had followed the discussions, the Chair thanked all speakers for their contributions and asked members to vote on the recommendation.  Members voted by unanimous decision to approve the application.

DECISION: Granted planning permission, subject to the legal agreement and conditions and informatives as set out in the original committee report, and referral of the application to the Mayor of London for his Stage 2 response.

(Voting on the decision was as follows: For 8; Against 0)