Agenda item

(Development Management Service Manager) To consider the attached report for the demolition of a commercial building and replacement with a single dwelling.

The Service Manager for Development Management – A Marx – presented a report for the demolition of a commercial building and replacement with a single dwelling at Aver House in Nursery Road, Nazeing. This application had previously been considered at Area Planning Sub-Committee West with a recommendation to refuse, but the Sub-Committee had voted to grant the application as being acceptable within a Green Belt location. However, as this had contravened the Council’s agreed planning policy, this application was referred to this Committee for a final decision.

A Marx stated that the application site was approximately rectangular in shape with a single storey commercial building, and fronted onto Nursery Road. Adjacent to the site was a development constructing four detached properties. The site itself was within the Metropolitan Green Belt and flood zone 2. The application sought permission to demolish the existing storage building and replace it with a two-storey property of exactly the same design as the properties being developed on the neighbouring plot. A similar planning application on this site had been refused as inappropriate development within the Green Belt and for its potential impact on the Epping Forest Special Area for Conservation, and the original Officer recommendation for this application had been to refuse it for similar reasons.

The Committee noted the summary of representations received for this planning application, whereby the Parish Council had no objection and no responses had been received from neighbouring properties. The Committee heard from the Applicant before proceeding to debate the application.

Cllr R Bassett informed the Committee that he had originally called this application to Committee for a decision. The Councillor stated that the site was effectively entirely hard standing as the foundations from the buildings previously demolished from the site were still in situ. There had been no objections from neighbours, the Parish Council or the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and the proposal if granted would improve the appearance of the site. Cllr S Heap agreed that there was a natural barrier which would prevent further development on the site if approved and he would support the application.

However, Cllr C C Pond agreed with the original Officer recommendation to refuse permission and would vote against the proposal. Cllr J Philip acknowledged the views of Cllr R Bassett but felt that – from a planning point of view – it was irrelevant that there used to be further buildings on the site as land within the Metropolitan Green Belt should be protected. Cllr J M Whitehouse agreed that the size of the proposed development would impact the openness of the Green Belt.

A motion to grant planning permission for the application as recommended by Area Planning Sub-Committee West was proposed and seconded, but this was lost when put to the vote. A motion to refuse planning permission as per the original recommendation by Planning Officers was proposed and seconded. A Marx suggested the potential impact of the development on the Epping Forest Special Area for Conservation should be removed as a reason for refusal.

            Decision:

(1)        That permission for planning application EPF/0858/20 at Aver House in Nursery Road, Nazeing be refused for the following reason:

            1…The proposal constitutes inappropriate development in the Green             Belt, for which there are no very special circumstances. Moreover, by             reason of its scale, height and siting, the proposal would result in a             significant reduction in the openness of the Green Belt.  Consequently,             the development is contrary to policies GB2A and GB7A of the Adopted             Local Plan and Alterations, policy DM4 of the Submission Version of the             Local Plan (2017) and the objectives of the National Planning Policy             Framework.

Way Forward

None proposed.