Conversion of the Chequers Pub in Canewdon into 4 flats and 2 bungalows: This was recommended for refusal by the officers and was indeed refused.
Perhaps surprisingly, the view of Canewdon Parish Council to the scheme was :
“? A well presented and thought out application, can see no reason to object. However the idea is unpopular with residents due to loss of local amenity”
Council leader Terry Cutmore , who is also one of the ward councillors , moved refusal on the two grounds that the officers had put forward – overdevelopment of the site , and unsympathetic design for the Canewdon conservation area. However , officers didn’t consider there were any planning policies that would stop the pub being converted into homes if a better scheme was produced.
Chris Black didn’t going along with this, pointing out that there was a council policy R9 that might be applied, and he was back up on this by Keith Hudson. So an extra policy reason was added to the refusal, and this could be harder for the applicant to overcome.
Flats In Ferry Road , Hullbridge- approved after a small amount of discussion.
Conversion of the upper part of the Rayleigh Lanes into flats and roof gardens. This was refused , with the refusal being moved by Mavis Webster and seconded by Chris Black.
This proposal was to keep the ground floor of the Rayleigh Lanes intact, but to rebuild the upper part as two levels of flats and roof amenity space. As a side effect this would force the Rayleigh Lanes Snooker Club to find another site.
The discussion kicked off with the two ‘members of the public’ speaking – this time it was the applicant’s agent, and the lady proprietor of the snooker club. Then Mavis Webster moved refusal, on the grounds that the flats had no parking, and the design of the building wasn’t appropriate. Ron Oatham and Chris Lumley both criticised the building design, and Chris Black expressed his concerns about the potential loss of the snooker club. In fact , following the meeting one prominent Tory councillor was very complimentary about the Lib Dem Councillors efforts in the meeting….
You can download the whole of last night’s agenda here. (780 kb)
One other thing. About a week ago Onlinefocus reader ST1 asked us about
?Policy 1.1 (Safety) and Policy P7 (parking standards) Appendix G: Development Control Policies and Processes, Essex Local Transport Plan 2006 /2011.? which are the set of new County Council Policies on parking requirements.
In last night’s agenda these policies were mentioned twice. The first time was in connection with the Coral application. County Highways said that the Coral scheme didn’t satisfy their policies and the Rochford officers used that policy to support their reasons for refusal. The second time was with the Rayleigh Lanes application. Once again County Highways said that the scheme didn’t satisfy their policies, but this time the Rochford planners didn’t accept that.
After being prompted by ST1, Chris had asked to see a copy of this policy document . It turned out that the District Councl doesn’t have a copy, only a previous version from some years ago – and without seeing the new policy document it’s not clear how much things have changed.
So the District Council is sometimes overriding a County Council policy without really knowing what it is…. Chris Black wasn’t happy with this and complained in the meeting about it….