Issue - meetings

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that a revenue grant of £261,000 be awarded to Cambridge Sport Lakes Trust towards the cost of an extension and improvements to the Visitor Centre at Milton Country Park.

Other Options Considered: Recommendation to Council.

Reason For Decision: Recommendation to Council.

Appendices 1, 2 and 3 are available, for reference, on the Council’s website.

Delegated approval as report, subject to no objections being received from the Local Highways Authority, following satisfactory responses from the Ecology Officer and Landscape Design Officer, with the Chairman of the Land Drainage Advisory Group being added to the consultation group detailed with finalising the Section 106 details and planning Conditions

The Committee gave officers DELEGATED POWERS TO APPROVE the application, following satisfactory responses from the Ecology Officer and Landscape Design Officer, subject to

·                no objections being received from the Local Highways Authority

·                The prior completion of a Section 106 Legal Agreement, and appropriate planning Conditions (in particular, those recommended by the Environment Agency, the final terms of which should be agreed in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Planning Committee, the Chairman of the Land Drainage Advisory Group, and Local Members for Milton and Waterbeach.

·                The discharge of drainage Conditions and a ‘Phase Two Flood Risk Assessment’ being considered by the Land Drainage Advisory Group and Planning Committee.

Councillor JA Hockney (not a member of the Committee and without a vote), declared a personal interest having attended the meeting of Landbeach Parish Council at which this application had been discussed, but did not vote there.

Councillor Mrs HM Smith declared a personal interest by virtue of having taken a close interest in the previous application relating to this matter. After that received outline permission, she had attended Cambridge Rowing Trust Board meetings as an observer but taken no part in the Board's decision making.  She had no personal friends on the Board. Involvement ended in 1999. Councillor Mrs Smith also declared a personal interest as a member of King's College, having coxed a boat on the Cam for three years as an undergraduate.  She  had not taken part in rowing since then.  When the current application was discussed at many Milton Parish Council meetings she had taken part in the discussion, but was again considering the matter afresh here.

Councillor RT Summerfield (not a member of the Committee and without a vote) declared a personal interest as a member of Milton Parish Council and by virtue of his involvement with Milton Country Park.

Recommendation to Environmental Health Portfolio Holder. 

This item was deferred until after item 8.

The Assistant Solicitor explained that the drainage issue was intrinsically linked to the planning application that had been deferred by the Planning Committee, pending receipt of drainage and hydraulic information from the Phase 2 Flood Risk Assessment. For this reason the Assistant Solicitor advised that Councillors who sit on the Planning Committee may, in discussing the application for by-law consent in this forum, risk straying into discussion on the merits of the planning application and therefore introducing grounds of possible challenge based on bias and predetermination and they should consider excluding themselves from discussing this matter within this Group if they wished to participate in the Planning Committee’s discussion on this item. Following this advice, Councillors Mrs PS Corney, SGM Kindersley and NIC Wright all members of the Planning Committee took no part in the subsequent discussion and left the meeting.

After a brief discussion, which did not involve consideration of the report, the Group agreed to defer making a recommendation on this matter until after the Planning Committee had revisited the issue and decided whether or not to approve the planning application.

Appendix 1 forms part of the report document.   In the interests of sustainability, Appendices 2 and 3 can be found on the Website only.

DEFERRED pending receipt of drainage and hydraulic information  from the Phase 2 Flood Risk Assessment and further transportation, ecology and landscaping information, but minded to approve subject to the information contained therein being satisfactory to the Local Planning Authority.

DEFERRED pending receipt of drainage and hydraulic information  from the Phase 2 Flood Risk Assessment and further transportation, ecology and landscaping information, but minded to approve subject to the information contained therein being satisfactory to the Local Planning Authority.

Councillor JA Hockney (not a Committee member but in attendance as a non-voting Member of Council) declared a personal interest by virtue of his membership of Landbeach Parish Council.  He had not voted on the application   when it had been considered by that Council.

Councillor R Martlew declared a personal interest by virtue of his involvement in early negotiations with the Cambridge Sport Lakes Trust as a former Cambridgeshire County Councillor.

Councillor MJ Mason (not a Committee member but in attendance as a non-voting Member of Council) declared a personal interest as South Cambridgeshire District Council’s representative on the Old West and Waterbeach Internal Drainage Boards.

Councillor A Riley declared a personal interest by virtue of having a stepson who rows.

Councillor Mrs HM Smith informed the Committee that she had taken a close personal interest in the Cambridge Rowing Trust’s (now known as the Cambridge Sport Lakes Trust) 1992 application in respect of a larger site, submitting two letters outlining her concerns.  At no point had she expressed an opinion, either for or against, regarding that scheme.  Subsequent to that application receiving outline planning permission, Milton Parish Council appointed her as an observer at Cambridge Rowing Trust Board meetings in order to protect the public interest recognised in the Section 106 Legal Agreement which was never actually completed.  Mrs. Smith assured the Committee that she had not been involved in the Board’s decision-making process, and that she had no personal friends on the Board.  Her involvement with the Board had come to an end in 1999, when observers were no longer invited to attend Board meetings.  Councillor Mrs Smith declared a personal interest as a member of King’s College, and explained that, as an Undergraduate there, she had coxed a boat on the River Cam for three years, but had not been involved with rowing since then.  Councillor Mrs Smith declared a further personal interest by virtue of her membership of Milton Parish Council, and of contributing to that Council’s discussion about, but not the voting on, the current planning application, which she was now, in any event, considering afresh as a District Councillor.

Councillor RT Summerfield (not a Committee member but in attendance as a non-voting Member of Council) declared a personal interest by virtue of his membership of Milton Parish Council, and having been involved in the past in negotiations on behalf of South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Jane Coston, Chairman of Milton Parish Council, addressed the meeting, having declared a personal interest by virtue of her involvement with the application on behalf of both the Parish Council and, previously, as a Cambridgeshire County Councillor.

Councillor R Hall had not attended the Committee site visit on 4^th September 2006, and did not vote.

Councillor Mrs DP Roberts had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11