Agenda item

The Assistant Director of Planning:

a)    advised that planning permission was sought to change the use of 68-70 Greetwell Close from a nursing home (use class 2) to 11 residential flats (use class 3), with hard and soft landscaping, car parking and installation of bin store and cycle store

b)    described the three storey application property, situated on the west side of Greetwell Close, in a prominent position in a residential area with a mixture of property types, including HMP Lincoln to the east and Lincoln County Hospital situated to the south

c)    provided details of the policies pertaining to the application, as follows:

·         National Planning Policy Framework

·         Central Lincolnshire Local Plan Policy LP26:Design and Amenity

·         Policy LP37: Sub-Division and Multi-Occupation of Dwellings

d)    advised Planning Committee of the main issues to be considered as part of the application to assess the proposal with regards to:

·         Residential Amenity

·         Visual Amenity

·         Highways

·         Drainage

·         S106 Agreement

e)    outlined the responses made to the consultation exercise

f)     referred to the Update Sheet which included additional consultee responses received from Lincoln Civic Trust and NHS Lincolnshire

g)    concluded that:

·         It was considered that the proposed development would accord with national and local planning policy

·         The proposal would be an appropriate reuse of the building in an established residential area.

·         The external works to the building would be minimal and therefore would have no adverse impact on visual amenity.

The Committee discussed the content of the report in further detail.

The following comments/questions were received from members:

·         Following an individual site visit site conducted earlier today, there seemed to be more space within the proposed development than apparent on the maps provided within the Planning Officer’s report.

·         In relation to complaints received regarding loss of trees, that there would be no such major tree loss here.

·         The bins were perfectly adequate as storage facilities.

·         There was provision of 11 car parking spaces, one per flat, together with restricted on-street parking.

·         The proposals represented a significant improvement of what went before in terms of the amount of previous activity at the nursing home e.g., ambulances, medical staff, employees etc.

·         This was a fine Victorian building in the main seen largely from the street and in terrible decay at the moment.

·         There was an allocation for parking of cars, however, there didn’t appear to be any cycle storage.

·         Was the garage to the side of the building to be retained as a car parking space?

·         There appeared to be no great loss of trees as part of the proposals. None of the trees were fine specimens with some having self-set and growing within the building itself.

·         Were the suggested conditions for sustainable drainage met within the recommendation to grant planning permission?

·         Were there any electric vehicle charging points?

The Chair confirmed that the provision of electric charging points was conditioned subject to grant of planning permission

The Assistant Director of Planning offered the following points of clarification to members:

·         It was possible to add a condition for provision of cycle storage and a sustainable drainage system subject to grant of planning permission if members were so minded.

·         In relation to the trees, some were growing in areas they would not survive and not in good condition.

·         He was not able to confirm whether the garage was to be retained as part of the proposed development, however, it had no protection order.

Councillor Watt asked whether a condition could be imposed on grant of planning permission requiring one cycle space per flat?

The Assistant Director of Planning suggested a suitable condition be worded requiring ‘a scheme for cycle storage according to available space’ However, cycle storage was already included within the proposed scheme conditioned as part of the submitted plans and therefore not necessarily needed.

A motion was moved, seconded, voted upon and carried that provision of a surface Water Management Strategy be added as a condition of grant of planning permission.

RESOLVED that planning permission be granted subject to the signing of an S106 agreement and subject to the following conditions:

·         Development to commence within 3 years

·         Development to be carried out in accordance with the submitted plans

·         Construction hours

·         Electric vehicle charging points

·         Surface water management strategy