Decision details

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

Kathryn Slater (applicant’s agent), Councillor Sarah Groom accompanied by Kirsten Rayner  (Gamlingay Parish Council) and Councillor Bridget Smith (a local Member) addressed the meeting. The agent summarised the application, highlighting the absence of objections from statutory consultees, and only three objections from local residents. The developer would contribute £750,000 to the local community. Councillor Groom said that the development would generate increased demand for pre-school places, and the facility in the Methodist Chapel would need about £350,000 spent on it if it were to cope. In addition, some £200,000 was needed to provide extra open space for sport, including a potential new site for the bowling green. Councillor Smith said that Gamlingay needed houses, but not at any cost. She said that it was important to protect the employment element of this proposal. Councillor Smith had supported the allocation of this site in the emerging Local Plan, but only as a mixed development. The current application offered no guarantee that the businesses would remain on site. She urged the Committee not to approve the application in its current form unless fully compliant with the Local Plan. Loss of employment opportunities had to be mitigated, and pre-school provision must be assured.

The Committee considered the application at length, focusing on

·       The site’s fitness for purpose

·       The need for operating hours in the industrial part of the site to be realistic, and appropriate to the needs of the businesses there

·       The need for upgraded community facilities

·       The adequacy or otherwise of Section 106 financial contributions

·       Pressures on the village

·       Affordable housing must be for local people in perpetuity

Some members expressed misgivings about the proposal.

The Planning Lawyer said that officers would look at the Section 106 Obligations on the basis of provision rather than Quantum in order to ensure compliance with Community Infrastructure Levy requirements. They would do so in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Planning Committee, and with local Members.

By 11 votes to nil (with Councillor Deborah Roberts abstaining), the Committee gave officers delegated powers to approve the application, subject to

1.     The prior completion of a Legal Agreement under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990

a.     based on the Heads of Terms set out in the update report from the Planning and New Communities Director;

b.     preserving in perpetuity the Class B2 employment use of the 25% of the Industrial Estate not destined to be developed for housing;

c.     securing the affordable housing in a manner consistent with that at Station Road, Gamlingay – for local people, with cascade outwards only once the housing waiting list in Gamlingay had been eliminated;

2.     consultation with Cambridgeshire County Council, as Local Education Authority and in conjunction with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Planning Committee and the local Councillors for Gamlingay, in connection with the provision, but not quantum, of additional early years accommodation for inclusion as a Planning Obligation;

3.     the application being reported back to Committee for determination should negotiations with Cambridgeshire County Council under Point 2 above be unsuccessful; and

4.     the Conditions set out in the update report from the Planning and New Communities Director.