Issue - meetings

The application sought approval for the removal of condition 2 (vehicle parking) of planning permission 08/1610/FUL.

The case officer advised the Committee that the application should be deferred as officers needed to review additional fire strategy information which had been submitted following the Planning Committee on the 21 April. Additionally statutory consultees (the highways and fire authorities) are being re-consulted on the revised information recieved.  

The Committee:

Deferred the application.

The Committee received an application for full planning permission.

The application sought approval for the removal of condition 2 (vehicle parking) of planning permission 08/1610/FUL.

Councillor Dryden (Ward Councillor) addressed the Committee about the application through a  written statement read by Committee Manager:

      i.          Fire safety and Pollution, if taxis are going into the hotel undercroft, they will leave their engines running which may well pose a fire risk and cause more pollution to staff in the covered area. The Planning Officer in his report mentioned the Grenfell disaster with fire in mind.

a.    The Planning Officer quoted the Fire Officer in the application: “It is therefore my professional opinion that vehicles should not be parked in the undercroft”.

b.    So why a condition asking to put taxis in there?

     ii.          On a practical level, most people who have ordered a taxi will be waiting outside for it.  Taxis will also not drive into the hotel to drop people off.

a.    To ask a taxi driver to leave the taxi outside, walk in to the hotel reception to ask for the gate to open, then drive in and navigate the undercroft, to then drive out again across a dropped pavement to either pick up or drop off does not make sense.  It would also cause more potential collisions as the taxi crosses the pavement both in going in and coming out.

   iii.          The Planning Officer’s report stated in 8.6 in relation to a previous appeal that “…the 4.5m carriageway with footways on both sides was considered to be ‘sufficient to allow most small or medium sized commercial vehicles to load or unload on the kerbside without causing undue difficulty”.

a.    A taxi picking a guest up or dropping a guest off outside is therefore fine.  Why go against an Appeals Officer who has visited the site?

   iv.          Disabled Valet Service made sense for the following reasons:

a.    Fire Risk: The access officer correctly understands the importance of the fire risk of vehicles within the hotel.

b.    Valet Parking: He also supports the provision of the ongoing offer from the applicant of a free Valet Parking service for disabled guests in the correspondence with the applicant and access officer and in the applicants existing travel plan.

c.    Convenience for Disabled Guests: Agreed with the Applicant that it was more disruptive for disabled guests to park their car outside, go into the hotel to ask for the gate to open, then navigate the undercroft in what is a tight area and park their car rather than have their car valet parked for them off site.

    v.          Supported the removal of the disabled bay, conditioned by the offering of a free valet service for disabled users.

   vi.          There was no need to condition the taxi turning area.

Councillor Martinelli (Ward Councillor) addressed the Committee about the application:

      i.          Residents were concerned about the traffic situation in the area, which would be exacerbated by the hotel and valet service.

     ii.          It was a good idea to retain the taxi drop off facility.

   iii.          Agreed with comments in the fire safety report.

The Committee:

The application was deferred to seek further information from:

      i.          a representative of the fire authority on whether the fire egress route was affected by storage arrangements and more generally on fire safety matters relevant to the application and

     ii.          a highways officer concerning highway parking etc. More particularly Members asked their officers  invite those officers to be available to provide professional advice when this item returns to Committee for determination.