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

Planning application 120908/FO/2018 for the erection of 6no. three storey six bedroom townhouses to provide managed student accommodation (sui generis) with landscaping, cycle parking and other associated uses was received.

In November 2005 planning permission was granted (ref. 073960/FO/2004/N2) for the conversion of Langdale Hall into 15 flats and for the erection of a three storey building to form 31 flats to the north of the villa.

In November 2006 planning permission was refused (ref. 080389/FO/2006/N2) for the erection of a three storey building to form 18 flats on this site. The subsequent appeal (ref. APP/B4215/A/07/2034511) was dismissed in May 2007.

The applicants submitted an identical application (117078/FO/2017) in July 2017 to the one now proposed. It was placed before the Planning and Highways Committee on 19 October 2017 with a recommendation of approve. At that meeting the Committee resolved to defer further deliberation until they had undertaken a site visit. The application was then further considered by the Planning and Highways Committee on 16^th November 2017 following a site visit that morning. As Members resolved that they were minded to refuse the proposal, the application was deferred again and it was requested that a report be brought back which addressed the Committee’s concerns and provided for further consideration potential reasons for refusal. The application was then placed before the Planning and Highways Committee on 14^th December 2017 and was duly refused for the following reason:

1) The proposed development, due to its siting would be harmful to the spacious character and landscaped setting of the site and as a result would have a detrimental impact upon the character of the Victoria Park Conservation Area and the setting of Langdale Hall, contrary to Policies DM1 and EN3 in the Core Strategy and saved UDP Policies DC18 and DC19.

In March 2018 the applicants obtained planning permission (119003/FO/2018) to convert a number of basement rooms into 1 no. studio flat and 1 no. one-bedroom flat for student accommodation.

A local resident spoke in objection to the proposals and said that this identical application to one previously refused attracted the same reasons for objection. 

The applicant’s agent spoke to the Committee and said that the use of the site as student accommodation had been firmly established, and that the accommodation would be marketed at older students who wanted a quiet setting.  They had fully considered the heritage of the site, and the proposals were sensitive to the setting of the Conservation area. 

Councillor Ahmed Ali spoke in support of the residents objections, and said that the proposals were completely unsuitable for the conservation area, and supported the resident’s assertion that the reasons for refusal remained unchanged. 

Officers confirmed that in this case, after assessment the benefits of redeveloping the site would outweigh any harm to the Conservation area, with the careful design and siting of the student accommodation the impact upon the character of the Victoria Park Conservation Area and the setting of Langdale Hall can be preserved and that as a result the harm to both can be catergorised as “less than substantial”.

The Committee carefully considered all of the representations that had been made, but concluded that the negative impact of this development on the character of the Conservation area and the setting of Langdale Hall would be so great that any benefits of the scheme would be outweighed by the detriment to the Conservation area.

The recommendation was to approve the planning application but due to the fact that Committee has previously refused an identical application for the reason included within the report then the decision to refuse the application was able to be made without the requirement to bring the application back to a future meeting.

Decision

To refuse to grant the application on the basis that the proposed development, due to its siting would be harmful to the spacious character and landscaped setting of the site and as a result would have a detrimental impact upon the character of the Victoria Park Conservation Area and the setting of Langdale Hall, contrary to Policies DM1 and EN3 in the Core Strategy and saved UDP Policies DC18 and DC19