Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Chris Blow, Maddy Redpath and Paul Spooner.  Councillors Deborah Seabrook and Bob McShee attended as substitutes for Councillors Blow and Redpath respectively. 

In accordance with the local Code of Conduct, a councillor is required to disclose at the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) that they may have in respect of any matter for consideration on this agenda.  Any councillor with a DPI must not participate in any discussion or vote regarding that matter and they must also withdraw from the meeting immediately before consideration of the matter.

If that DPI has not been registered, you must notify the Monitoring Officer of the details of the DPI within 28 days of the date of the meeting.

Councillors are further invited to disclose any non-pecuniary interest which may be relevant to any matter on this agenda, in the interests of transparency, and to confirm that it will not affect their objectivity in relation to that matter.

A non-pecuniary interest was declared by Councillor Deborah Seabrook.  Councillor Seabrook declared that she was a member of St Saviour’s Church which would be affected by the proposed development, however, she confirmed that it would not affect her objectivity in the consideration of the application.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of the Committee.

The Chairman stated that on Tuesday 10 January 2023, The Secretary of State in exercise of his powers under Article 31 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, hereby directed Guildford Borough Council not to grant permission on application 22/P/01336 without specific authorisation. This direction is issued to enable him to consider whether he should direct under Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that the application should be referred to him for determination.

This direction does not prevent the Planning Committee from considering the application, forming a view as to the merits of the proposal, resolving to grant subject to a s106 legal agreement or, if so minded, refusing permission. 

Given the complexity and importance of this application, the Chairman stated that she had agreed to allow three people to speak in support and three people to speak to object to the application. 

The Chairman lastly permitted members of the planning committee to speak for a total of five minutes each in relation to the application. 

Prior to the consideration of the application, the following persons addressed the Committee in accordance with Public Speaking Procedure Rules 3(b):

·        Mr John Harrison (to object)

·        Mr Richard Mills (on behalf of Guildford Town Centre Conservatives) (to object)

·        Mr Alistair Smith (Chair of Guildford Society (to object)

·        Mr Jack Nicholson, Land and Development Director, St Edward (in support)

·        Mr Marcus Adams, Managing Partner, JTP (in support)

·        Mr Bill Stokoe (in support)

The Committee considered the above-mentioned full application for a mixed-use redevelopment on a site bounded by North Street, Leapale Road and including Commercial Road and part of Woodbridge Road, Guildford comprising: Demolition of existing buildings, a new bus interchange with new access junction arrangement, new canopy, waiting facilities, a hard and soft landscaped pedestrian public area and hardstanding.  Erection of buildings ranging from 4 to 13 storeys comprising the following uses: residential dwellings with associated car parking, hard and soft landscaped communal areas, ancillary cycle storage, residents gym, concierge and management office (Use Class C3); flexible non-residential floor space (Class E) together with: hard and soft landscaped areas to form pedestrianised streets and public spaces, associated vehicular access, servicing arrangements, plant, highway works (including alterations to North Street, Leapale Road and Commercial Road; and junctions at Leapale Road / North Street; Leapale Road / Commercial Road / Woodbridge Road) and associated infrastructure.  The stopping up of adopted highway (including Commercial Road and Woodbridge Road.  Alterations to a Listed Building (17 North Street) including the exposure to part of the flank elevation and party wall works.

The Committee received a presentation from the Senior Planning Officer, John Busher.  The Committee noted that the development involved the demolition of some existing buildings on the site and the construction of a residential led mixed use scheme, along with the refurbishment of the bus station, the creation of new areas of public realm and the part pedestrianisation of North Street.  The Committee noted the supplementary late sheets which summarised a letter received from the government about the holding direction.  Because of this, planning officers had changed the recommendations to include the point that the Council would have to wait for the Secretary of State to remove the holding direction before the application could be approved.  The late sheets also included a section which assessed the application in terms of its impact on the AONB and AGLV.  Finally, there were two small changes to the proposed Heads of Terms which were on page 20 of the agenda.   In terms of late representations there were an additional 29 letters of support that had been stopped by the Council’s firewall system. 

The application site was approx. 2.69 hectares in area and was bound to the south by North Street, to the west by Friary Shopping Centre and to the east by Leapale Road.  The site formed part of A5 which was an allocated site in the Local Plan.  The site was allocated for a mix of uses and included approx. 400 homes, 41,000 sqm of retail  ...  view the full minutes text for item PL4

The Committee noted that given that application 22/P/01336 had been refused that they were minded to delegate the decision to planning officers to refuse the above-mentioned Listed Building Consent application for works to 17 North Street associated with detailed application (22/P/01336) for a mixed-use redevelopment at North Street, Leapale Road and including Commercial Road and part of Woodbridge Road, Guildford.

A motion was moved and seconded to delegate the decision to planning officers which was carried.  A show of hands instead of a recorded vote was cast 8:5. 

In conclusion, having taken account of the representations received in relation to this application, planning officers under delegated powers, refused application 22/P/01337 for the following reasons:

1.     As planning application (22/P/01336) which includes the demolition of number 18 North Street has been refused planning permission, the repair and making good works proposed through this application would be unnecessary. In addition, the partial demolition works proposed to the chimney stacks of number 18 North Street would have an impact on the historic fabric of the building. Bearing in mind that planning application 22/P/01336 has been refused, no evidence has been submitted to justify these works and there are no known public benefits which would outweigh the potential harm caused. The loss and change to the historic fabric of the listed building is therefore deemed to be contrary to the statutory tests set out in the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation) Areas Act 1990, Policy D3 of the Guildford Borough Local Plan: Strategy and Sites, 2019; Policies D16 and D17 of the Guildford Borough (Submission) Local Plan: Development Management Policies (incorporating the Inspector’s main modifications), 2022 and the guidance contained in the National Planning Policy Framework, 2021.

Informatives:

1.         This decision relates expressly to drawings 0001 REV P1; 0012 REV P1; 0008 REV P1 and 0010 REV P1.