PROPOSAL: Erection of seven dwellings, including four market and three affordable discounted market sale dwellings and associated vehicular access.

OFFICER RECOMMENDATION: Delegated permit.

45.35        This application was for erection of seven dwellings, including four market and three affordable discounted market sale dwellings and associated vehicular access.

45.36        The Senior Planning Officer advised that an updated response had been received from Norton Parish Council which was too late for inclusion within the Additional Representations Sheet, attached at Appendix 1; however, the response did not raise any new considerations from the original response as set out in the Committee report.  He advised that the current application was a revised scheme to the one allowed at appeal in 2020 and had been submitted to avoid an easement for a high pressure gas main located to the south of the site which had necessitated revision to the site layout replacing a linear form of residential development fronting onto the access road with a more ‘agricultural style’ and courtyard layout.  A relatively informal, non-linear form of development was encouraged within the he Down Hatherley, Norton and Twigworth Neighbourhood Development Plan.  To the immediate north of the site was a recently completed development of five dwellings at Walnut Gardens, arranged in a courtyard, which was permitted in 2019.  To the south of the site was a single storey dwelling with caravan park behind known as Norton Lodge and the site was surrounded by open countryside to the west.  The site was not subject to any formal or informal landscape designation and lay within Flood Zone 1.  The design of the proposed dwellings was similar in character and form to the three dwellings to the north.  The Parish Council made the point it was unlike that development due to the three storey element but he clarified the development to the north had residential development in the roof similar to these properties. Members would see from the Committee report the local residents’ concerns regarding the proposal.  Whilst the appeal was upheld, the present application departed from a linear form to more interesting informal groupings.  The previous Section 106 Agreement was a unilateral undertaking only applicable to the approved appeal scheme and the applicant had put forward a new draft for approval, hence the recommendation for delegated permission.  Since the publication of the Committee report, County Highways had advised that it was no longer seeking a contribution for a bus shelter, as such the recommendation had been amended to remove that element, as set out in the Additional Representations Sheet.

45.37        The Chair indicated that there were no public speakers for this item.  The Officer recommendation was that authority be delegated to the Development Management Manager to permit the application subject to the conditions set out in the Committee report and completion of a unilateral undertaking to secure affordable housing, and sought a motion from the floor.

45.38        It was proposed and seconded that authority be delegated to the Development Management Manager to permit the application in accordance with the Officer recommendation and, upon being put to the vote, it was

RESOLVED           That authority be DELEGATED to the Development Management Manager to PERMIT the application, subject to the conditions set out in the Committee report and completion of a unilateral undertaking to secure affordable housing, in accordance with the Officer recommendation.