Agenda item

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report for an environmental enhancement scheme embracing hydrology, conservation and access allied to an enabling development (fourteen detached houses) to ensure delivery.

The Senior Planning Officer presented a report for an environmental enhancement scheme embracing hydrology, conservation and access allied to an enabling development to ensure delivery at Abridge Golf & Country Club in Epping Lane, Stapleford Tawney. The application was before the Committee as it constituted a “large scale major development” as defined within guidance published by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The Senior Planning Officer reported that the site was a Golf & Country Club with an area of 100 hectares. The site was bounded on the north by the M25 motorway, and adjoined the curtilage of Skinners Farmhouse – a listed building. The site was within the Metropolitan Green Belt, and sloped down from north to south. Beyond the southern boundary of the site, the slope was shallower towards the River Roding, and Brookhouse Brook (a tributary of the River Roding) adjoined the western boundary.

The Senior Planning Officer stated that there were two elements to the proposal: engineering operations to improve drainage; and the erection of fourteen houses. The engineering operations would create 16 lakes and ponds which would act as reservoirs. The water collected would then be used for irrigation purposes on the site during the summer months. No spoil would be taken off site, and the excavations would be accompanied by ground re-modelling works elsewhere on the site. An all-weather buggy track would also be created, as well as two new toilets for use by people with disabilities. Fourteen four-bedroom two-storey houses of three different design types would be constructed near the existing vehicular access to the clubhouse. The construction of these houses would be necessary to fund the engineering works.

The Senior Planning Officer advised the Committee that Planning Officers had concluded the erection of fourteen houses in the Metropolitan Green Belt was fundamentally contrary to policy. The benefits of the engineering operations were not sufficient to overcome the inappropriateness of new housing in the Green Belt, which would cause obvious harm to the openness, rural character and appearance of the locality. Therefore, refusal of planning permission had been recommended.

The Committee noted the summary of representations and that 135 letters of support had been received, albeit of a pro forma nature. Both Theydon Mount Parish Council and Theydon Bois Action Group had strongly objected to the proposals. The Committee heard from the Applicant’s Agent, who offered the Council a Section 106 Legal Agreement in connection with the proposal, before proceeding to debate the application.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Senior Planning Officer stated that the Council’s Drainage Team did see potential benefits from the scheme, although the Committee queried the lack of evidence to support this view. A Viability Appraisal, to demonstrate that the scheme would be unviable if any affordable housing had to be provided, had been requested from the Applicant but nothing had been forthcoming. The Assistant Director of Governance (Development Management) highlighted that the area around Abridge was a flood plain for the River Roding, and that a Flood Alleviation Scheme costing £1.3million had resolved previous problems at Hillmans Cottages in Abridge. The Senior Planning Officer reiterated that the Buggy Track and new Toilets were the facilities being provided for people with disabilities.

The Committee felt that there were no special circumstances to justify the proposed enabling development in the Green Belt, and no wider public benefit from the application as a whole. It was contrary to all Green Belt policies, and was an unsustainable location for 14 new houses which would represent an approximate increase of 26% in the population of Theydon Mount. There was scepticism expressed about the M25 motorway being a cause of flooding on the Golf Course, and it was highlighted that Abridge had flooded both before and after the M25 had been built. The catchment area for the River Roding was extensive, and the River had always flooded. The Committee was content for the Golf Club to improve the drainage on the course, but was against the building of 14 new houses at the proposed location. There were also concerns about the lack of evidence produced to validate the various claims being made.

Resolved:

(1)        That planning application EPF/0232/16 at Abridge Golf & Country Club in Epping Lane, Stapleford Tawney be refused permission for the following reasons:

1.         The site lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt. The proposed development, more specifically its associated enabling development, is inappropriate in the Green Belt and, by definition, harmful. It fails to protect the openness of the Green Belt and encroaches into the countryside to a significantly greater degree than existing structures on site. The details accompanying the application do not amount to very special circumstances sufficient to outweigh the harm to the Green Belt that would result from the development. The proposal is therefore contrary to policies GB2A and GB7A of the Adopted Local Plan andAlterations and the aims and objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework.

2.         The proposal would fail to provide any Affordable Housing and as such would be detrimental to public amenity and contrary to Policies H5A, H6A, H7A and H8A of the adopted Local Plan and Alterations and the provisions of the National Planning Policy Framework.

3.         By reason of the scale and position of the proposed housing development and nature of the junction alterations, the development would be detrimental to the visual amenities of the surrounding area and harmful to the character and appearance of this rural location, contrary to policies DBE4, LL1, LL2 and LL10 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations and the aims and objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework

4.         By reason of their siting in a location that is poorly served by public transport and remote from goods, services and employment opportunities, the occupants of the proposed dwellings would be over dependent on private motor vehicles. Consequently, the enabling component of the proposed development is unsustainable, contrary to Local Plan and Alterations policies CP3 and ST1, which are consistent with the policies of the National Planning Policy Framework.