Agenda and draft minutes

Any substitute members should declare their substitution.

There were no substitute members.

Members and Officers must declare any disclosable pecuniary interests in relation to any business on the agenda.  Declarations should also be made at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.

If in doubt contact the Legal or Democratic Services representative for this meeting.

Members and Officers may seek advice upon any relevant interest from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting.

Councillor Carol Albury declared that she would not be sitting on the committee for the second application this evening, AWDM/1069/24, 5 HIllbarn Parade, Sompting,  as she had been involved in conversations with the district councillor regarding the application.

So as to provide the best opportunity for the Committee to provide the public with the fullest answer, questions from the public should be submitted by midday on Wednesday 30 October 2024.

Where relevant notice of a question has not been given, the person presiding may either choose to give a response at the meeting or respond by undertaking to provide a written response within three working days.

Questions should be submitted to Democratic Services –

democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk

(Note:  Public Question Time will last for a maximum of 30 minutes)

There were no pre-submitted Public Questions.

Pre-submitted Members questions are pursuant to rule 12 of the Council & Committee Procedure Rules.

Questions should be submitted by midday on Wednesday 30 October 2024 to Democratic Services, democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk     

(Note: Member Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

There were no pre-submitted Members Questions. 

A question was raised at the meeting by Councillor Gerry Thompson -

The question is regarding what some residents are calling ‘land grabbing’, by which they mean when other residents have put fences up around a piece of public land and then, in some cases, retrospectively asked for that to be permitted as their own land, thus taking away some public land that may have been used or valued by the community. There has been a recent case which has raised some planning questions that I would like to ask a question about tonight. This example involves a piece of land on a public pathway that was in the care of the West Sussex Highways department. A resident put a fence up round the piece of land, extending their own fence to include a mature cherry tree. Once that was done, they then applied for permission from the Highways department and sent them some inconclusive photographs, not really showing the whole position, and the Highways department agreed to it. Now they have applied for the final stage which is to close off that section of what is essentially a public highway.

The issues it has raised, in a planning aspect, is that we didn’t really have any sense that this was happening. Some residents consider there wasn’t proper informing of the community, some of whom may have had a view about it. Regarding possible future occurrences, is there a way of doing things differently so we can be more aware of these instances? Public land is a limited resource and a very sensitive issue. When some of this land is lost it’s gone forever and I think, as time goes on, public land is going to be regarded as more and more valuable as a community and environmental resource. 

The Interim Head of Planning & Development replied - 

In respect of that particular site, permission was sought and we found out about it retrospectively. The case officer made a site visit in the normal way and took photographs, which I’ve seen, and came to the conclusion that permission should be granted. I think the neighbours' concerns were that we didn't consult widely enough on the planning application. We met our normal criteria of consulting with the adjoining neighbours and with anyone whose land touches the site, so we consulted with 4 or 5 of the neighbours and none of those raised any comments. Because there was a wider estate impact some of the neighbours who weren’t the nearest were the ones who objected. In the future we may need to consider whether we should consult more widely. The resident concerned then applied separately for a Stopping Up order. The County Council Stopping Up order procedures are that they will put up a notice. Some of the wider community saw it and then found out that planning permission had already been granted. In terms of what happens in the future, those applications will appear on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item ADC-PC/51/24-25

To approve the minutes of the Planning Committee meetings of the Committee held on 30 September 2024, which have been emailed to Members.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 30 September 2024 be confirmed as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chair.

To consider any items the Chair of the meeting considers urgent.

There were no items raised under urgency provisions.

To consider the reports by the Assistant Director for Regenerative Development, attached as Item 7.

The planning applications were considered, see attached appendix.