The District Council’s Development Control Committee met last night , with the air-conditioning on full blast. There were no big surprises.
Asda got a 3-year extension on the outline planning permission for their site. Although residents were very suspicious of what was going on, and were against it, councillors came down in favour of allowing it.
Chris Black said that this way, some of the key conditions in the outline planning permission were kept alive , such as “traffic numbers not detrimental” and “a wide range of uses valuable to the local community”. Even if we had refused to allow another three years, an applicant could submit a full application, and in that case those conditions wouldn’t be there.
The Great Wakering housing application also got passed. Councillors raised concerns about a number of issues – school places, gardens below minimum standard, and flooding. But we felt we couldn’t refuse it because a very similar application had been passed in 1985.