Issue - meetings

The Committee received an application (under Regulation 3 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992 (as amended)) for full planning permission for the continued operation of existing Park and Ride Site on 24hr basis together with a proposed extension to accommodate 274 additional car parking spaces (including disabled parking bays); additional bus and coach stops and layout area; reconfiguration of existing car parking and the site entrance; provision of pedestrian and cycle links to Trumpington Meadows and replacement/new undercover cycle parking with associated infrastructure and landscaping.

 

The Committee noted the amendments contained in the amendment sheet and the addendum amendment sheet circulated at Committee.

 

David Fletcher (Applicant’s Agent) addressed the Committee in support of the application.

 

Philip Allen (Chair of South Trumpington Parish Meeting) addressed the Committee and made the following comments:

i.             South Trumpington Parish were supportive of the application and were aware of traffic implications in the area.

ii.            Discussed drainage.

iii.           Referred to concerns contained on p22 of the committee report regarding hours of construction and asked that these would meet Cambridge City Council hours of construction.

iv.          Asked if works undertaken around the school could be done during the school holidays 

 

In response to Members’ questions the Development Management Officer, Business Manager and Assistant Director (Delivery) said the following:

     i.        Confirmed that an informative may be used to refer to legislation other than planning legislation, which was different to planning conditions as there were specific planning requirements that needed to be met for these to be lawful.

    ii.        Additional disabled parking bays were being provided, although he could not comment why these were not located next to existing disabled parking bays.

   iii.        The Applicant had submitted projections of cycle use and the cycle parking provision exceeded projections. The cycle route through the site was detailed on submitted plans.

  iv.        She could not comment on whether the proposals would affect any future autonomous vehicle plans.

   v.        It would be difficult to enforce parking restrictions for the use of certain parking bays during un-social hours. Environmental Health Officers did not raise any concerns about noise to residents or the school.

  vi.        Air quality had been addressed.

 vii.        The south west car park would be approximately 285m from the school. 923 trees were due to be removed as part of the application but 1040 would be planted and 40 bird boxes should be provided. Planning Officers had been made aware of pre-application correspondence between the school and the applicants regarding the vegetation removal and no concerns were raised.

viii.        Environmental Health Officers did not raise any concerns regarding MUGA use.

  ix.        The maintenance of the drainage system would fall to the site operator and or its owner. The applicant had had to submit a lot of detail to ensure that concerns were overcome.

   x.        Noted concerns expressed about tree removal, however a number of trees type had been changed for trees with a wider base to offer more immediate screening. If the trees did not take, condition 11 dealt with their replacement.

  xi.        Officers would encourage the applicant to be a considerate contractor but it was not possible to condition that works were undertaken during school holidays.

 xii.        Confirmed that an informative would be added to the permission, if approved, regarding CCTV for public safety at the bus layover point. 

xiii.        Changes had been made to the width of the cycle parking to meet the Cambridge City Council requirements as detailed in paragraph 8.60 of the officer’s report.

xiv.        Noted Members comments that pedestrian walkthroughs should follow desire lines however the applicant had to comply with health and safety legislation and therefore walkways would be located in accordance with health and safety requirements.

xv.        Confirmed that fences being approved off site as part of the residential development would be located on the boundary of residential properties and would not cut through residential gardens.

xvi.        Confirmed officers would check the number of parking spaces following a member highlighting a discrepancy on the plans.

xvii.        Confirmed that the parent and child parking bays would become regular parking bays, they were not being removed.

xviii.        Commented that the reason for the dog-legged area and bollards was to ensure vehicles could not use the shared cyclist and pedestrian route.

xix.        There was an urgent need for the additional parking spaces; the current site was working at full capacity. This was an immediate short term solution a longer term strategy would need to be considered.

xx.        It was important to have a link between the park and ride site and Trumpington Meadows.

xxi.        This application did not consider electric charging points.

xxii.        Noted that informative 4 needed to have the word ‘shall’ corrected to ‘should’.

xxiii.        Noted that whilst there was a net loss of cycle parking provision this was balanced against the quality of the cycle parking provision.

 

The Committee:

 

Resolved (by 9 votes to 3 with 2 abstentions) to grant the application for planning permission in accordance with the officer recommendation, for the reasons set out in the officer report, and subject to the conditions recommended by the officers subject to the changes set out on the 2 amendment sheets and additional informatives (below), with delegation to officers in consultation with the Chair, Vice-Chair and Spokes to confirm the on-plan discrepancy identified by Members in relation to the overall number of car parking spaces

 

The identified discrepancy was an additional parking bay and reconfigured soft landscaping area on the western site boundary, adjacent to the shared cycle and pedestrian access into Trumpington Meadows.  This is to be shown consistently on all of the submitted plans and be clear on the number of new parking spaces being provided..

 

Additional Informatives

 

Surface Water Drainage

All surface water from roofs shall should be piped direct to an approved surface water system using sealed downpipes. Open gullies should not be used.

 

CCTV

CCTV should be set up within the site, to address issues of anti-social behaviour. In particular in the bus layover area.