Agenda and minutes

This virtual meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to unmute before speaking.

The Chairman will read the following announcement:

“I would like to remind everyone present that this virtual meeting will be broadcast live to the internet (or filmed) and will be capable of repeated viewing (or other such use by third parties). Therefore by participating in this virtual meeting, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes. If members of the public do not wish to have their image captured they should ensure that their video setting throughout the virtual meeting is turned off and set to audio only.

Please also be aware that if technical difficulties interrupt the meeting that cannot be overcome, I may need to adjourn the meeting.”

On behalf of the Chairman, the Team Manager for Democratic & Electoral Services reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the internet and would be capable of repeated viewing, which could infringe their human and data protection rights.

(Team Manager – Democratic & Electoral Services) General advice for those persons attending the meeting of the Committee is attached as an Appendix to this agenda.

The Chairman welcomed members of the public to the meeting and outlined the procedures and arrangements adopted by the Council to enable members of the public to address the Committee. The Committee noted the advice provided for the public and speakers at meetings of the Council’s planning committees.

(Team Manager – Democratic & Electoral Services) To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Committee was advised that the following substitute had been appointed for the meeting:

(a)         Cllr R Bassett for Cllr H Kane.

(Monitoring Officer) To declare interests in any item on the agenda.

The following interests were declared by members of the Committee pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct:

(a)         Cllr R Bassett declared a personal interest in item 7 (Planning Application EPF/2712/19 – Nazeing Glass Works, Nazeing) of the agenda for the meeting, by virtue of being a trustee of Epping Forest Community Transport. The Councillor had determined that his interest was not pecuniary and indicated that he would remain in the meeting for the consideration of the application and voting thereon.

(b)         Cllr S Heap declared a personal interest in item 7 (Planning Application EPF/2712/19 – Nazeing Glass Works, Nazeing) of the agenda for the meeting, by virtue of having corresponded with the Applicant in relation to the existing stained glass windows. The Councillor had determined that his interest was not pecuniary and indicated that he would remain in the meeting for the consideration of the application and voting thereon.

(Service Manager – Development Management) A Planning Policy Briefing Note (March 2018) has been produced by the Planning Policy Team to ensure that a consistent approach is taken to the provision of planning policy advice for the District, particularly in relation to the Epping Forest District Local Plan Submission Version, which was published on 18 December 2017.

The primary purpose of the Planning Policy Briefing Note is to inform the development management process and to provide assistance for Development Management Officers, Councillors, applicants and planning agents. The Planning Policy Briefing Note is available at:

http://www.efdclocalplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Planning-Policy-Briefing-Note_Mar-2018.pdf

The Service Manager for Development Management reminded the Committee that a briefing note had been prepared to ensure that a consistent approach was taken to the provision of planning policy advice, following the publication of the Epping Forest District Local Plan Submission Version on 18 December 2017. Members were advised that the primary purpose of the briefing note was to inform development management activities and to provide assistance for Councillors, Officers, Applicants, Planning Agents and other persons involved in the development management process.

The Committee noted the Planning Policy Briefing Note for the Epping Forest District Local Plan Submission Version.

(Service Manager – Development Management) To consider the attached report for Outline Planning Permission for the demolition of all buildings & structures on the site & comprehensive mixed use development comprising up to 5,000sqm (GIA) floorspace for employment uses including retail (Class A1), office (Class B1a), light industrial (Class B1c), health care (Class D1), leisure (Class D2), a maximum of 230 residential (Class C3) units, the formation of new pedestrian, cycle & vehicular circulation routes & means of access, new private & public open space, play space, cycle & vehicular parking.

The Senior Planning Officer, S Dhadwar, presented a report for the Committee to consider an outline planning application for the demolition of all buildings and structures at the Nazeing Glass Works site in Nazeing New Road, Nazeing to be replaced with a comprehensive mixed use development comprising up to 5,000m² of floorspace for employment uses, a maximum of 230 residential units, the formation of new pedestrian, cycle and vehicular circulation routes, new private and public open space, play space, and cycle and vehicular parking. The Application was before the Committee as it constituted a ‘large scale’ development as defined in Article 10 of the Council’s Constitution. The Service Manager for Development Management, A Marx, presented drone footage of the site which had been filmed in November 2020.

S Dhadwar informed the Committee that the site was 2.9 hectares in size and was relatively flat. Approximately half of the site was designated as being part of an existing Employment Area and the largest single building was operated by the Nazeing Glassworks Company. Other uses within the Employment Area included: furniture manufacture; car spraying; car sales; office accommodation; education and training services; and warehousing. The site included an open area of grassland known as Nazeing Mead, and to the south of this was a more densely vegetated and wooded area which was part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The site was within the Lee Valley Regional Park Area and was also identified as an area at risk from flooding. The site also adjoined the Lee Valley Central Local Wildlife Site, the River Lee Navigation Canal, woodland, residential properties and caravan park. As an outline planning application, approval was being sought for the access, landscaping, layout and scale of the development; the only matter being reserved was the appearance.

Planning Officers had acknowledged that the proposal would provide a number of benefits, including the provision of 230 new homes, a general improvement in the site’s appearance and financial contributions to improve public transport and pedestrian access to the site. However, the application would: result in the loss of designated employment floorspace for which there was a strong demand; result in an increase in annual average daily traffic compared to the existing uses on the site; provide only 50% of the required affordable housing for a development of this size and the submitted viability assessment had not followed the correct criteria; not deliver the necessary infrastructure to make the development acceptable; be highly vulnerable to potential flooding being located in Flood Risk Zones 2 and 3; construct a five-storey block of flats to the detriment of the landscape character of the site; be inappropriate development in the Green Belt for the southern section of the site and no very special circumstances had been proffered to outweigh the harm caused by this development. Therefore, Planning Officers had concluded that planning permission should not be granted for this application.

The Committee noted the summary of representations that had been received for this application. The Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

(Service Manager – Development Management) To consider the attached report for the release of planning permissions previously agreed by Committee, following recommendations to GRANT permission subject to planning conditions, contributions or mitigation measures in respect of recreational visitor pressure and air quality impacts within the Epping Forest Special Area of Conservation (EFSAC).

The Planning Officer, C Ahmet, presented a report for the release of planning permissions previously agreed by Planning Committees, following recommendations to grant planning permission subject to planning conditions, contributions or mitigation measures to offset recreational visitor pressure, and air quality impacts within the Epping Forest Special Area of Conservation (EFSAC).

The Committee was reminded that the Council had adopted an Interim Air Pollution Mitigation Strategy in February 2021 and an Interim Strategy for Managing Recreational Visitor Pressures in October 2018, both of which would form the basis for addressing the negative impacts on the EFSAC arising from new residential and commercial development proposals.This new combined approach to assessing impacts on the EFSAC would also apply to dealing with those planning applications that had been held in abeyance from being determined until the above measures were agreed. Officers were currently working through this backlog to enable their release at the earliest possible opportunity where it could be concluded that there was no adverse effect on the integrity of the EFSAC.

C Ahmet stated that to deal with the backlog in the most efficient and equitable way, a process has had to be implemented (referred to formally as the EFSAC Protocol). In essence, the protocol outlined the sequence in which each planning application would be released. Together with the publication of the protocol, all applicants (through their agents) had also been notified of this new process for dealing with their respective applications. Members were asked to note the content of the report, and to agree the three recommendations allowing Planning Officers to progress any Section 106 Legal Agreements, finalise all appropriate habitat assessments and to add or amend planning conditions before the release of the planning permissions for the 32 planning applications listed in Appendix 1 of the report.

C Ahmet added that a 21-day consultation period had been undertaken for the 32 planning applications and ten responses had been received in total. One of the applications listed in Appendix 1 of the report had been the subject of a late third party representation which had alleged changes to the material circumstances of the planning application. Planning Officers were in the process of investigating this and this application – EPF/0826/18 48 Russell Road, Buckhurst Hill – should be omitted from the list.

Cllr C C Pond proposed that two further planning applications should be removed from the list; these being EPF/0287/18 at 51 High Road in Loughton, and EPF/1471/19 at 113 Church Hill in Loughton. Both of these sites were very close to the Forest and the Councillor felt that the interim Air Quality Mitigation Strategy was not sufficiently robust to be applied to these two applications. The Service Manager for Development Management, A Marx, reminded the Committee that the Council had received legal advice which stated that the Air Quality Mitigation Strategy could be applied to all development in combination or separately. The traffic modelling for both of these sites had been undertaken, and Officers believed that this process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

(Team Manager – Democratic & Electoral Services) Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 requires that the permission of the Chairman be obtained, after prior notice to the Chief Executive, before urgent business not specified in the agenda (including a supplementary agenda of which the statutory period of notice has been given) may be transacted.

It was noted that there was no other urgent business for consideration by the Committee.

Exclusion

(Team Manager – Democratic & Electoral Services) To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Background Papers

(Team Manager – Democratic & Electoral Services) Article 17 (Access to Information) of the Constitution defines background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)        disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

The Council will make available for public inspection one copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers for four years after the date of the meeting. Inspection of background papers can be arranged by contacting either the Responsible Officer or the Democratic Services Officer for the particular item.

The Committee noted that there was no business which necessitated the exclusion of the public and press from the meeting.