Issue - meetings

That planning permission be refused for the reasons detailed in the report of the Head of Planning. 

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Planning in respect of this application which had been the subject of a site visit on 13 May 2013.  The usual consultations had been undertaken and the responses received detailed in the report.  Corrections to two paragraphs of the report were circulated at the meeting.   

The officer detailed the background to the report explaining that this was a resubmission of application 049152 which had been dismissed on appeal following a public inquiry. She advised that the main issue to consider was whether this application addressed all of the issues raised by the Inspector, which were summarised on page 32 of the report.  The Inspector had considered that the development would constitute inappropriate development in the green barrier and its open character and appearance would be harmed, but as very exceptional circumstances had been demonstrated, that harm was outweighed by the need for gypsy and traveller sites. 

However, the Inspector was concerned that, due to the site’s location adjacent to the A55, this might give rise to unacceptable living conditions for the site occupants with regard to the effects of noise and air pollution and he had no evidence before him to decide otherwise.  The Inspector had therefore concluded that planning permission should not yet be granted due to the unsatisfactory living conditions which the site might provide because of traffic noise and pollution.  He had referred to advice in Planning Policy Wales about noise levels and to Technical Advice Note (TAN) 11 Noise which pointed out that the weight to be given to such matters might be affected by other considerations, such as the need for the proposed development. 

Turning to the current application, the officer advised that the Head of Public Protection had considered that the noise levels which had been measured in a one day exercise on behalf of the applicants did not provide sufficient data.  She added that the barrier which was proposed would not reduce the noise and could move the level into category C or D (shown in the table on page 40 of the report) rather than in level B which had been indicated in the application.    

An Air Quality Assessment had been submitted with the application.  There was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that any pollutants on the site would not lead to unacceptable living conditions which could adversely affect the health of the site occupants, which would be contrary to Policy EWP12 of the Flintshire Unitary Development Plan.  The site was crossed by a 33,000 volt overhead line and Scottish Power were concerned that any structure or bund under the line would reduce the required clearance of 5.8 metres for road and 5.2 metres for other locations and increase the potential for persons to come into contact with, or be close to, the line as this was likely to result in serious injury or death.

 Independent advice had been sought about the impact on the green barrier.  On the basis of that advice,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8