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 in relation to highways matters.

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 23 November 2020.

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 4 and 11 November 2020, which have been emailed to Members.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 4 and 11 November 2020 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, Baker, 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 Communities, attached as Item 7.

The Chairman introduced the report and advised that a motion proposed by Councillor Smytherman had been referred by Council for resolution by the Planning Committee.  He advised the motion referred to the White Paper 'Planning for the Future’.  As the matter had already been considered at the Planning Committee meeting held on 21 October 2020, Councillor Smytherman had agreed to withdraw the motion.  The Chairman advised there would still need to be a resolution by the Committee and proposed the motion be rejected.

The proposal was seconded by Councillor Atkins.  A vote was taken by roll call to reject the motion, and the vote was as follows:-

For: Cllrs Atkins, Baker, Deen, Harman, High, Silman, and Wills

Against: 0

Abstain: Cllr McCabe

Decision

The Committee Members AGREED to reject the motion.

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

The report provided an update on negotiations to vary the original s106 agreement signed in connection with the West Durrington development (reference WB/11/0275/OUT).

An addendum had been circulated since despatch of the papers, which included Officers’ responses to some of the concerns from the Residents’ Association.

The Head of Planning and Development shared an aerial photograph of the scheme for Members’ attention and stated the key issues related to the area around the proposed school and community facilities.  He advised the original s106 agreement included a school site of 1.1 hectares, and a financial contribution towards the construction of the school, with the potential for the County Council to acquire additional land.  Many discussions had been held since the granting of planning permission, back in 2011, and the original intention for various triggers to be met had been exceeded in some cases however, there had also been triggers missed by all parties the Consortium, WSCC and the Borough Council.

The Officer advised the County Council and the Department for Education (DfE) had been through a tender process to nominate a Trust to build the school and had held discussions to decide how much land might be required and whether some of the community facilities could be linked to the school. 

The Officer confirmed the DfE had now negotiated directly with the Consortium and had agreed a school site which incorporated some additional land to provide a two-form entry local Trust school, with an appropriate level of outdoor space.  However, the Legal Agreement needed to be amended to reflect those discussions and secure additional land in lieu of a financial contribution towards the construction of the new school.    

Regarding the Community Centre, the Officer said that Members may recall that Reserved Matters had been granted for the Centre some time ago, however, there had been no certainty as to a future occupier at that stage.  Therefore, discussions had been held with the Parks and Communities Teams for an alternative way forward, whereby the community land (indicated on a plan in the report) would be transferred to the Borough Council, together with a financial contribution equivalent to the cost of construction, so that the Council could liaise with a future tenant regarding the Centre’s detailed design and internal specifications.

The Officer concluded by referring to other elements within the report which, in summary, included the marketing of land for additional community space (previously earmarked for a Medical Centre) the potential for an off site skateboard facility/green gym; and other community facilities.

A Member asked whether there was any cost incurred through missing triggers.  The Officer advised that all parties had missed triggers and therefore had agreed to meet their own legal costs, however, there would be some additional costs in terms of building the community centre.  Nevertheless, this would be more cost effective in the long run by avoiding the Consortium building a Community Centre to a specification that would not be suitable for a future tenant.

Another Member said  ...  view the full minutes text for item WBC-PC/67/20-21