Decision details

S/3187/18/FL - Bar Hill (Industrial estate known as Norman Park, Land at Saxon Way)

Decision Maker: Development and Conservation Control Committee (see also Planning Committee), Planning Committee

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

All planning applications for Bar Hill considered by the Planning Committee since May 2003. For individual reports, please click on the ‘Meetings’ tab above. For further details on all Bar Hill planning applications, please visit our Planning Applications Database and select Bar Hill from the drop-down list of parishes.

Decisions:

Members visited the site on 13 August 2019.

 

The case officer gave a verbal presentation based on the following points:

 

·         Highways issues were being addressed as part of the A14 upgrade

·         Implications for Northstowe Town Centre

·         Unsustainability of the proposed development

·         Departure from the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018

 

Members sought and received clarification about appropriate marketing of the redundant buildings on site, and the sequential retail test.

 

Matthew Morris (objecting on behalf of Homes England, who were developing Northstowe Town Centre), Peter Keenan (applicant’s agent), and Councillor Bunty Waters (local Member) addressed the meeting.

 

Most Members focussed on the proposal’s conflict with Local Plan policies, retail hierarchy and marketing requirements and were minded to refuse the application. However, Councillor Peter Fane said that the proposal should be viewed in terms of striking a balance between existing retail in South Cambridgeshire and the proposal’s specific benefits, including job creation. Councillor Fane noted that traffic issues were being addressed and that there was overwhelming public support for the proposal. He referred to a comment made by the applicant’s agent that the retailers lined up for the development had stated that, for commercial reasons, they were no longer interested in trading from town centres the size of Northstowe.

 

By ten votes to one, the Committee refused the application for the reasons set out in the report from the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development.

 

(Councillors John Batchelor, Ellington, Handley, Heylings, Milnes, Rippeth, Roberts, Topping. Heather Williams and Wilson voted to refuse the application. Councillor Fane voted to approve it.)

Publication date: 03/09/2019

Date of decision: 14/08/2019

Decided at meeting: 14/08/2019 - Planning Committee

Accompanying Documents: