Planning Minutes 28th March 2012
MINUTES of the Meeting of the PLANNING COMMITTEE held at The 1912 Centre, Cow Lane, Harwich on Wednesday 28th March 2012 commencing at 6.30 pm.
HARWICH TOWN COUNCIL
Guildhall, Church Street, Harwich, Essex CO12 3DS
Tel: 01255 507211
Present: Councillors Brown, Calver, Day, Double, Flavell, Gibbins, I Henderson,
J Henderson, King, McLeod, Thompson and Todd
In the Chair: Councillor Thurlow
Clerk: Lucy Ballard
Also present: 2 members of the public and 1 member of the press
Absent: Cllr R Callender
Betty Holbrook raised concerns that TDC planning officers do not necessarily visit sites for which applications are made and referred to the Hangings site. She asked if HTC councillors made a point of visiting sites. Cllr Double said that some applications were subject to building regulations and this is often the eyes of the council and the Hangings situation was possibly an error on behalf of both the developer and TDC.
P092/11 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies received from Cllr C Callender.
P093/11 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Cllr McLeod as member of Development and Control Committee at TDC.
P094/11 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Town Planning meeting held on 7th March 2012 (previously circulated) be approved by the Committee and signed by the Chairman as a true record.
P095/11 PLANNING APPLICATION 12/00116/TPO
The Clerk informed members that the tree affected by the above TPO would be replaced with a species of a similar kind or as agreed, as a condition of the TPO.
P096/11 PLANNING APPLICATIONS
The Committee considered a schedule of planning applications for weeks ending
9th March, 16th March and 23rd March.
RESOLVED: Recommendations in Appendix ‘A’ be submitted to Tendring District Council.
P097/11 PLANNING ENFORCEMENT ISSUES WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF HTC
Cllr I Henderson referred to the former Harwich Primary School site, which has become an eyesore and learned that further to bringing this to the attention to TDC in January 2012, two separate periods of notice, 21 days and 28 days, respectively, had been issued to the agent to clear the site and erect substantial barriers. He informed members that TDC have only limited powers of enforcement and the site owners need only to clear the site and erect a barrier, despite the present barrier not being substantial. He confirmed that HTC councillors are doing what they can but not helped by lack of enforcement at the planning authority. Cllr J Henderson referred to a previous TDC meeting at which Cllr Guglielmi offered to come to Harwich to discuss issues surrounding derelict sites and suggested we take up his offer to do so.
RESOLVED: to take up offer from Planning Portfolio Holder Carlo Guglielmi to attend a meeting of the Council to explain further the enforcement powers.
P098/11 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next Town Planning meeting will be held at the Long Meadows Community Centre, Long Meadows, Dovercourt, on 17th April 2012 at 6.30pm.
The Chairman closed the meeting at 7.05pm
APPENDIX A
HARWICH TOWN COUNCIL: Recommendations of the Planning Committee Meeting held on 28th March 2012
WEEK ENDING 9th MARCH
12/00248/TPO
Mr T Williams
T2, T3, T4 – Lime – fell. T1, T6 – Lime – pollard to previous reduction points. T5 – Sycamore – reduce by 2 metres. Replace three removed trees with appropriate species
No objection
WEEK ENDING 16TH MARCH
12/00268/ADV
Harwich Town Council
Mrs L Ballard
Sign to be painted onto sea wall, facing seawards
Noted
12/00269/FUL
Mr J Moor
Change of use from dwelling to residential home for 2 young adults with special needs.
No objection
12/00278/FUL
Mrs H Bull
Garage conversion.
No objection
WEEK ENDING 23rd MARCH
12/00283/FUL
Miss H Coulson
Single storey side and rear extension
No objection
12/00257/FUL
Mr M Stewart
Single storey chalet style residential property (including accommodation in the roof) to provide 4 no. affordable flat units with associated car parking and amenity space.
No objection