Agenda and minutes

Councillor Bob Bushell welcomed everyone present at tonight’s meeting of the City of Lincoln Council Planning Committee.

As Vice Chair of the Committee, he advised that it would be clear why he was chairing the meeting when we came onto the declaration of interest section of the agenda.

He introduced planning officers who would present the application and respond to any questions or points of clarification. Also present were legal representatives who were available to offer guidance to Committee members and officers who would record the minutes of the meeting.

He highlighted that the meeting was being held at the Engine Shed tonight as this venue enabled the Council to accommodate increased numbers of members of the public with socially distanced seating arrangements. This was in accordance with the Council’s current Covid-19 risk assessment. In relation to the risk- assessment, it was requested that if possible, visitors wore a face covering when moving around the building and when seated and not talking.

He advised that with regards to other health and safety announcements, in the event of the fire alarm sounding, visitors should leave the building using the nearest fire exit. 

He requested that mobile phones be either turned off or put on silent mode.

He advised that all committee members had access to their own microphone. They did not need to press any buttons on the microphone, as it would automatically be made live when members began to speak.

He outlined the process for tonight’s meeting as follows:

1.    Firstly, all Councillors would be asked to make any declarations of interest;

2.    Secondly, the Planning officers would be invited to present the report;

3.    Thirdly, objectors who had registered to do so would be invited to address the Committee;

4.    The fourth element invited any Ward Advocate who had registered to do so to address the Committee;

5.    The fifth part invited the Applicant to address the Committee;

These contributions would be for up to 5 minutes per speaker and would be timed using a traffic light system which started when each speaker began, 4 minutes on the green light, 1 minute on amber and contributions were expected to stop on the red light.

At this stage of proceedings, he planned to hold a twenty minute comfort break before reconvening.

6.    The matter would then be opened for debate to the full Planning Committee;

7.    Finally, a vote would be taken.

Councillor Naomi Tweddle declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest with regard to the Western Growth Corridor planning application.

Reason. Her husband worked for the City of Lincoln Council.

She left the building for the remainder of the meeting and took no part in the discussion and vote on the matter to be determined.

Councillor Gary Hewson declared a Personal Interest with regard to Western Growth Corridor planning application.

Reason: He sat as a member of the Upper Witham Drainage Board.

He had duly considered whether this interest was a pecuniary interest under the Member Code of Conduct. When taking into consideration the reasonable member of the public test, as outlined in the Code of Conduct, and the assessment of how much this application would affect the Drainage Board, he did not consider that his interest was a pecuniary interest. He would therefore be participating in the meeting as a member of the Committee.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the Western Growth Corridor planning application.

Reason: He sat as a member of the Upper Witham Drainage Board.

He had duly considered whether this interest was a pecuniary interest under the Member Code of Conduct. When taking into consideration the reasonable member of the public test, as outlined in the Code of Conduct, and the assessment of how much this application would affect the Drainage Board, he did not consider that his interest was a pecuniary interest. He would therefore be participating in the meeting as a member of the Committee.

Councillor Rebecca Longbottom declared a Personal Interest with regard to the Western Growth Corridor planning application.

Reason: She sat as a member of the Upper Witham Drainage Board.

She had duly considered whether this interest was a pecuniary interest under the Member Code of Conduct. When taking into consideration the reasonable member of the public test, as outlined in the Code of Conduct, and the assessment of how much this application would affect the Drainage Board, she did not consider that her interest was a pecuniary interest. She would therefore be participating in the meeting as a member of the Committee.

Councillor Thomas Dyer declared a Personal Interest with regard to the Western Growth Corridor planning application.

Reason: He sat as a member of Lincolnshire County Council.

He had duly considered whether this interest was a pecuniary interest under the Member Code of Conduct. When taking into consideration the reasonable member of the public test, as outlined in the Code of Conduct, and the assessment of how much this application would affect the County Council, he did not consider that his interest was a pecuniary interest. He would therefore be participating in the meeting as a member of the Committee.

Councillor Edmund Strengiel declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Western Growth Corridor, Skellingthorpe Road, Lincoln'.

Reason: He sat as a member of Lincolnshire County Council.

He had duly considered whether this interest was a pecuniary interest under the Member Code of Conduct.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

An update sheet was tabled at the meeting, which included additional public responses received within the allotted deadline in relation to the planning application, and not included in the original agenda pack

RESOLVED that the Update Sheet be received by Planning Committee.

Kieron Manning, Assistant Director of Planning, Simon Cousins, Planning Team Leader, and Lana Meddings, Principal Planning Officer, assisted by Nicola Collins, Senior Planning Enforcement Officer:

1. advised that outline planning permission was sought for the sustainable urban extension (SUE) of Lincoln on the site of Western Growth Corridor, with all matters reserved except for two points of access

2. highlighted that this was a joint planning application between the City of Lincoln Council and Lindum Western Growth Community Ltd

3. reported that at this stage the applicants were seeking to approve the principle of the following uses:

·         Housing development of up to 3,200 dwellings;

·         Local centre comprising community, retail (E, F.2 and Pub or drinking establishment/Takeaway as Sui Generis uses),

·         Employment (E) uses and parking;

·         A primary school;

·         Up to 8 hectares of land (including key infrastructure) for up to 40,000sq.m of E and B2 development;

·         Up to 12 hectares of land (including key infrastructure) for sport, recreation, and leisure (E and F.1 and F.2),

·         A hotel (C1) food and drink outlets (E and Sui Generis) and

·         A new community stadium for Lincoln City Football Club;

·         Areas of formal and informal public;

·         A network of public footpaths and cycleways associated engineering works to inform development platform and drainage system;

·         New transport bridge link over to Beevor Street, and a

·         New public footpath bridge over to Tritton Road.

4. added that full planning permission was sought for two new access points to the site as follows:

5. referred to a suite of documents accompanied by the application, all of which were available online, including:

f.     advised that:

·         Under EIA Regulations, the Proposed Development did not fall within the definition of a ‘Schedule 1 development’, however, it did fall within Schedule 2, Part 10(a): Industrial Estate development projects and Part 10(b) Urban development projects, including the construction of shopping centres and car parks, sports stadiums, leisure centres and multiplex cinemas.

·         For Schedule 2, Part 10a development, EIA was required where the area of the development exceeded 0.5 hectares and the development was likely to have significant effects on the environment.

·         For Schedule 2, Part 10b development, EIA was required where (i) the area of development exceeded 1.0 ha of urban development which was not dwellinghouse development; or (ii) the development included more than 150 dwellings; or (iii) the overall area of the development exceeded 5 ha, and the development was likely to have significant effects on the environment.

·         In the case of the proposed development all of these criteria applied and, as such, an environmental statement had been submitted with the planning application.

g.    described the location of the Western Growth Corridor application site:

·         Extending to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.