Agenda and minutes

Any substitute members should declare their substitution.

Councillor Karen Harman substituted for Councillor Paul Westover.

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 as 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 Paul High declared an interest as an elected Member of WSCC, particularly in relation to any highways matters.

Councillor Noel Atkins declared an interest as an elected Member of WSCC.

The Head of Planning and Development declared a personal and prejudicial interest in relation to item 6.2, AWDM/0279/21, as he was acquainted with the applicant however had not played any part in the determination of the application.

During the meeting, Councillors McCabe and High separately declared an interest in item 6.2, AWDM/0279/21, as they both resided within the Goring Ward area.

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 Monday 22 March 2021.

Where meetings are held remotely, no question will be permitted from the public unless such notice has been given.

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 questions raised under Public Question Time.

To approve the minutes of the Planning Committee meetings of the Committee held on Wednesday 10 March 2021, which have been emailed to Members.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 10 March 2021 be confirmed as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

A recorded vote was taken by the Democratic Services Officer which was as follows:

For: Councillors High, Atkins, Deen, Harman, McCabe, Silman, & Wills

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 Director for the Economy, attached as Item 6.

The applications were considered, see attached appendix.

To consider the report by the Director for the Economy, attached as Item 7.

The Head of Planning and Development introduced the report and began by referring Members to one of the appended appeal decisions, The Wheatsheaf Public House in Richmond Road, which had raised concerns from The Worthing Society and the Planning Committee. 

The Officer felt it was important for Committee Members to be notified of appeal decisions, and the comments on appeal performance.  He confirmed that the Council upheld 83% of its s78 appeals and 86% of householder appeals, a good overall performance for 2019/20.  The Officer further advised performance figures for the current financial year for appeals would be released in May 2021 and therefore a further report would be submitted in June 2021.    

The Officer concluded his presentation by referring to the appeal decision, and costs made against the Council, on Salvington Hill.  He added Officers were aware that nationally inspectors were awarding more costs against local authorities.  

Some Members raised queries with the Officer which were answered in turn.  One was in relation to the choice of reasons given for refusal of a planning application.  The Officer advised that clearly articulated reasons were always needed for a refusal and felt it was necessary to capture within the debate exactly what those reasons were.  Another Member referred to the Salvington Hill application and felt the Inspector had not been given full information on the biodiversity concerns raised at the planning meeting which she felt were significant.  She asked the Officer whether Members should have emphasised those concerns more clearly within the reasons for refusal.  The Officer recalled the debate and felt the reasons for refusal had captured more generally the loss of vegetation but had also included landscape conditions.

During debate, Members thanked the Officers for including the report on the agenda and agreed it would be beneficial to add any decisions received to future agendas as a standing item.

Decision

The Planning Committee unanimously AGREED to note the report and the attached appeal decisions.

To consider the report by the Director for the Economy, attached as Item 8.

The Head of Planning and Development outlined the report and advised Members the Joint Sport, Leisure and Open Space Study had helped to inform the Emerging Local Plan, and policies within the Plan, in relation to the protection of open space.  The Officer advised it was important to ensure new developments provided the right level of open space/play equipment however, should developers be unable to make provision on site there was a method of calculating offsite contributions towards enhancing parks, gardens and areas of open space.

The Officer advised there was a shortfall across all the different types of open space typologies and referred Members to Table 4 of the report which showed open space supply at Ward level against the quantity standards.

Members raised queries with the Officer, mainly in relation to their Wards, which were answered in turn. 

During debate, it became apparent Members would like Officers to explore more enhancement along the seafront, and other areas within the town.  The Officer agreed more discussion would take place with the Parks Team to attempt to address shortfalls.

Decision

The Planning Committee noted the recommended open space standards, AGREED to forward any comments to the Executive Member for Regeneration to consider prior to formally adopting the standards, agreed the cost calculator be adopted for use in calculating needs arising from development proposals; and be published on the Councils’ website.