Agenda item

Variation of Condition 25 (Construction Delivery times) of planning permission S.22/0918/FUL (as amended by S.22/2197/VAR).

The Planning Officer introduced the application and explained that it was originally brought to committee in September 2022 and Members had requested an additional condition to restrict construction traffic. The proposal was a variation of that restriction to allow greater flexibility with delivery times but still avoiding the peak school drop off and pick up times. It would also decrease the restrictions when the school was closed.

Councillor Jockel, Ward Councillor, spoke against the variation and asked the committee to refuse. He explained that his reasons for refusal centred around Local Plan Policies CP14 and ES3 and were as follows. That there was no offer to mitigate the increased risk that the variation would create which highlighted the lack of concern for the community. The school’s long-term relationship with the community was at risk of further damage from this variation. The current construction management plan was confusing and gave little confidence that the conditions would be met. The variation solely focused on the occupants of the school and didn’t factor in work related traffic or the poor infrastructure of the area. There was no offer of offsite road safety measures, only onsite. There was little communication to the community regarding the restrictions and any variation proposed. He informed the committee of incidents already occurring with large vehicles parking for several hours on the road leading to the site.

Mr Cook, spoke on behalf of the applicant, in favour of the proposal and asked the Committee to permit the application for the following reasons:

·         This was a department for education project.

·         The current restrictions only allowed for deliveries between 9am – 3pm which was very limiting. The new proposal sought to expand delivery times whilst still avoiding peak hours of school drop off and pick up times and to eliminate restrictions during non-term time where volume of school traffic was limited.

·         The construction time would take approximately 113 weeks during which time a lot of materials would be entering and leaving the site. Some materials have a much longer loading/unloading time therefore it would be more efficient to get the deliveries onsite prior to the peak school movements and then begin the loading/unloading process while the restrictions were in place.

·         The current restrictions had a detrimental impact to the development and risked extending the construction period further.

In response to Councillor Brown, the Planning Officer confirmed that there would be no restrictions on construction deliveries before 8am and after 4pm with the new variation. However, there was a further condition (Condition 5) which would restrict construction hours for the whole site.

Councillor Schoemaker questioned whether there had been any traffic modelling completed around the road. The Planning Officer confirmed the key details would have been submitted for the original application and this was just a variation.

Councillor Jones questioned whether Condition 5 would include dropping off materials. The Principal Planning Officer confirmed that it would not include deliveries to and from the site however it would include the loading and unloading of the lorries.

In response to Councillor Cornell, the Chair explained that the Head of Development Management called in the application to the Committee as it was a condition that the Committee had imposed at the time of approval and which the officers felt was not required. 

Councillor Jones proposed and Councillor Brown seconded the Officer advise to grant permission.

Councillor Brown stated that the reason the condition was applied in the first place was to protect the children from construction traffic during pick up and drop off times and the new variation satisfied those concerns.

Councillor Jones echoed Councillors Browns comments.

Councillor Schoemaker expressed his concerns that there was no traffic modelling carried out and would like the variation to be extended to include work hours (4pm-6pm).

Councillor Miles expressed concerns with unnecessary restrictions and stated she would be supporting the proposal in hopes to improve the construction efficiency.

Councillor Fenton shared Councillor Shoemaker’s concerns with work traffic. 

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried with 7 votes in favour and 2 votes against.

RESOLVED To permit the application.

Councillor Jones left the meeting.