The report of the Director of Planning, Building Control and Licensing is attached.

This application was for the erection of a 2 storey teaching block and re-arrangement of the associated car park.

This application was reported to committee on 25th July 2019 following a site visit that morning. As members resolved that they were minded to refuse the proposal, the application was deferred and requested that a report be brought back which addresses the concerns and provide for further consideration of potential reasons for refusal. Members were minded to refuse the application on the basis of the following:

-           The proposals were in conflict with Core Strategy policy EN3 and saved UDP policies DC18 and DC19.

At the meeting it was reported that the applicant had sought to address the concerns that members had by proposing to provide alternative views across the open spaces towards the listed buildings on the campus, including the creation of a new opening in the wall along Dagenham Road where the existing high wall could possibly be lowered and replaced by railings. That would allow new views into the site. A planning application had already been submitted (123188/FO/2019) which related to works on the boundary walls around the college. The late representations that were submitted also proposed amendments to conditions 3 and 12 from those that had been included in the officer’s original report.

The meeting was addressed by an objector. He was concerned about the scheme’s harm to the setting the heritage assets near to where the new building would be built, and also on the wider conservation area. He considered the design of the teaching block to be poor and believed that other possible locations for it on the campus should be investigated by the committee.

The meeting was then addressed by the Finance Director of the college, speaking as the applicant. The proposed building was important to the college’s capacity to teach more 16-18 year olds. The college was sympathetic to the concerns about the heritage assets and the conservation area but felt that the proposed location was the best one to preserve green-space on the campus, and to not create other problems on the campus site.

At the meeting the officer explained how other possible locations had been looked at, but they had all presented issues that made them less suitable than the location that was before the committee.

In considering the application, Members welcomed the applicant’s suggestion for allowing new views into the campus. Members sought an assurance that consent for the development could also be subject to a condition on the creation of those views, and the changes to the boundary wall to allow for that. The Director of Planning confirmed that approval could be subject to such a condition, and on being satisfied that the college would undertake the boundary work as part of the implementation of the scheme.

Decision

Minded to approve with the authority to approve the application delegated to the Director of Planning, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee, subject to the conditions and reasons set out in the report, and as amended in the late representations submitted at the meeting, and subject to the Director being satisfied that the proposals for creating new views into the site by opening sections of the wall could be secured by way of an additional condition attached to the consent.