Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were intimated from Councillors Gordon Blair, Rory Colville, Mary-Jean Devon, Donald MacMillan and Richard Trail.

Councillor George Freeman declared a non financial interest in respect of planning application reference 13/00566/PP as he had previously indicated his support for the proposed development.  He left the meeting and took no part in the determination of this application.

Report by Head of Planning and Regulatory Services

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.  The Central Governance Manager outlined the procedure that would be followed and those who wished to speak were identified.

Planning

Sandra Davies spoke to the terms of the report on behalf of the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services.  Before commencing her presentation she advised Members of three late representations which had been received in respect of this proposal from Martin and Margaret Cornish, Lindsay Charlton and Emma Munro.  She advised that these representations related to loss of car parking, road safety issues, design and loss of open space and did not raise any new issues which would be material to the determination of this planning application.

She advised that this planning application was for the erection of a block of flats comprising 12 units and that her dealings with the application stretched back to as early as 2008 when a scheme for 20 units was proposed.  She advised that the number of units was reduced to take account of comments from planning and other statutory consultees.  She advised that within this proposal 6 units were 1 bedroom flats and 6 units were 2 bedroom flats and that the site was located within the west end of Helensburgh on a site located between West King Street and Ardencaple Drive.

She advised that the site was a brownfield site and access to it was via an adopted road which ran past the rear of Hood Court.  In terms of the adopted Local Plan she advised that the site was located within the settlement boundary of Helensburgh which was defined as a Main Town within this plan.  The erection of 12 residential units was defined as “medium scale” within the Local Plan and was considered an acceptable scale of development at this location and therefore the principle of this scale of development in this location was considered acceptable.  With this principle established she advised that consideration then had to be given to site specific issues such as design, amenity and parking etc.

She advised that 19 formal car parking spaces were proposed to serve the residents of the existing flats at Hood Court and that a further 21 spaces would be available to serve the new flats.  Referring to slides she advised that the green areas represented areas to be turfed and she also highlighted the location of new trees to be planted.

She advised that a number of objections had been submitted in relation to this application which related to the loss of car parking for the residents of Hood Court and the suitability of the access to serve the new development.  She advised that it was clear that the public road which provides access to the development was being used for parking and appears to be used mainly for parking bumped up on to the footway adjacent to the Hood Court building.  She advised that the site has been monitored by the Roads section since the initial pre-application enquiry in 2008 and on this basis it was considered that the provision of a further 19 compensatory spaces would be acceptable.  She confirmed that the Roads Network Manager had advised that he had no objections to the proposal subject to conditions as the proposed access, parking and turning were acceptable and in accordance with Local Plan policy.

She referred to the design of the flats and advised that since the application was first submitted some minor amendments had been made to the proposal in terms of the finishing materials.  She advised that a higher proportion of render had been added to the front elevation and metal cladding had been included at the entrance areas.  She advised that a further design change incorporated a hipped roof on the rear elevation in order to lesson the impact on the flatted development known as Argyll View behind.  She advised that the roof would be clad in grey concrete tiles and would have a 40 degree pitch.

She advised that it was considered that the proposed development fell within the definition of back land development. 

She advised that during the processing of this application concern had been expressed about the development causing problems with sunlighting and daylighting at the flats at Argyll View.  She advised that there were also concerns about privacy caused by some directly facing window to window distances having less than 18 metres separation.  As a result of these concerns, she advised that the footprint of the building had been relocated by approximately 1 metre to ensure separation was in accordance with the distance stated within Appendix A of the Local Plan.  The Applicants were also required to carry out a daylight and sunlight test in accordance with the British Research Establishment’s publication “Site Layout Planning for Sunlight and Daylight”.  She advised that the initial test undertaken to determine the significance of this issue involved taking a 25 degree angle from the centre of the lowest window on the existing building and extending the line towards the new development.  If this line clears the ridge of the proposed new building then the report advises that it can be concluded that there would not be a substantial effect on sunlighting and daylighting.  She referred to a slide showing the plan that was submitted by the Architect to demonstrate that the proposal would pass this test.  She advised that the Architect had taken the point on the existing building below the level of the window and so if this was raised to the height of the window the clearance would be even greater.  She advised that this confirmed that there were no significant issues with the loss of sunlight or daylight.

She referred to a slide which highlighted the trees that would be removed from the site.  She advised that a tree survey was carried out and that a total of 9 classified trees were recommended for removal on the survey due to issues of disease, crown shape and leaning trunks.  She  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.