Agenda item

The Principal Planning Officer submitted a report on behalf of the Director of Regeneration, Enterprise and Planning and elaborated thereon. It was advised that planning permission was sought for a decision that was deferred from the previous meeting for 2 warehouses on Bedford Road South East of Brackmills in Northampton.  The design incorporated a curved roof in order to reduce its impact on the local area and had been deferred to seek responses on the scale of the development, its impact on the conservation area as well as alternative sites and the impact of additional traffic.

The application itself had not been amended but the key points were that the proposal was 322m to the nearest building and 320.8m to the church at Great Houghton village. The proposal was separated from the village by screening which, within 10 years would completely obscure the building. Consideration had been given to an alternative site at Grange Park but this was considered to be inappropriate while there was no scope for the development elsewhere. This would mean that, if permission was not granted, then the developer would be required to seek alternative sites outside the borough. This would mean that the proposal for 391 staff by 2021 would not benefit Northampton. In terms of traffic, there was a likelihood of only 1-3% increase on current levels of usage which was seen as negligible and would be mitigated by works being carried out the roundabouts nearby. The Section 106 Agreement would also secure measures to  increase the provision of public transport.

Councillor Tony Skirrow from Great Houghton Parish Council addressed the Committee and spoke against the proposal. He advised members that the developer had been given time to address the application in 4 areas but had changed nothing in that time. The separation distances between the development the village was unchanged and the slope of 1:3 on the bund would make it practically impossible for it to be used by walkers and cyclists. He believed the proposal would cause environmental and social harm as well as traffic congestion. The Cabinet was due to discuss a new Local Plan and currently promoted the use of brown field sites. As such this application went against planning policy of the Borough Council.

Sarah Williams addressed the Committee and spoke against the application. She stated that the application had not been amended since the last time it came to the Committee. She felt the application was inappropriate because it was on green field land and for heritage reasons. The development would destroy species on the land, would have an impact on an already busy road and would have a negative visual impact on the gateway to the town. It was also contrary to the local plan. The proposed bund was not a country park and was not in keeping with what was already there and would not support the national cycle route. The proposed occupier of the site was an EU company whose jobs would not support families but provide casual employment for very few. The application had not been well publicised and the benefits of it would not outweigh the harm it would do to the community.

Robert Lamb addressed the Committee and spoke against the proposal. He advised members that the traffic on the road was already heavy and backs up every morning. The application had not changed but merely added more reference points which made the building seem further away. Contractors were likely to come from outside the area and not Northampton and the occupiers would be a company that paid very little corporation tax. The proposal seemed to be self serving and would cause harm to the local area.

Councillor Penny Flavell addressed the Committee and spoke against the application. She asked the Committee to consider the proposal very carefully in the knowledge that they refused to grant permission at the last meeting and that nothing in the proposal had changed. She asked the Committee to consider whether it would really bring additional jobs into the town and whether the benefit was more for Decathlon than the community.

In response to points raised by the speakers the Principal Planning Officer confirmed that access to the site would be via a hard surfaced path and the reason for the proximity to the local area was that there was lots of land associated with the site whereas the building itself would be much further away. Decathlon had stated that there would be jobs available to the local community.

In response to questions from member the Principal Planning Officer confirmed that the developers had not changed the proposal but responded to concerns raised by members at the previous meeting.  He also confirmed that traffic resulting from the site would increase by approximately 1-3% which was negligible.

The Committee discussed the report.

RESOLVED: That the application be APPROVED in PRINCIPLE subject to the prior completion of a legal agreement and conditions set out in the report and for the following reason:

The development would support the continued economic growth of Northampton and would provide additional employment opportunities. These significant public benefits would outweigh the less than substantial harm to heritage assets. Furthermore, subject to conditions and the legal agreement, the development would have a neutral impact upon the landscape and natural environment, residential and visual amenity, the highway system and flood risk. The development is therefore in conformity with the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework; Policies BN2, BN5, S1, S7, S8 and S10 of the West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy; and Policies E9 and E20 of the Northampton Local Plan.