Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or other registerable interest they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable interests that they might have in the business on the agenda, if they had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Area Planning Sub Committee meeting held on 3 October 2019 and the last Planning Committee B meeting held on 9 March 2023.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the Area Planning Sub-Committee meeting held on 3 October 2019 and the last meeting of Planning Committee B held on 09 March 2023 were approved as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at our meetings.  The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Tuesday, 11 April 2023. 

To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online registration form.  If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services.  Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we made some changes to how we ran council meetings, including facilitating remote participation by public speakers. See our updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy) for more information on meetings and decisions.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Members will consider a Major Full Application by Impala Estates Limited for an extension to warehouse after demolition of existing ancillary building and associated external refurbishment and infrastructure works.

Members considered a major full application by Impala Estates Limited for extension to warehouse after demolition of existing ancillary building and associated external refurbishment and infrastructure works at Abracs, George Cayley Drive, York, YO30 4XE.

The Development Manager gave a presentation on the plans and provided a verbal update on the conditions as follows:

·        Condition 2, the Ground Floor Plan was revision 4, instead of revision 3 and the First Floor Plan was revision P01 instead of P00.

·        Condition 11 was recommended for deletion as there were no works proposed to the existing entrance.

Members asked for more clarification of the size of the planned car parking.

Public Speakers

Hamish Robertshaw, Agent for the Applicant, spoke in support of the application.  He explained that the extension would allow expansion of the business and noted the significant investment of Abracs and the landowner. He described the plans and emphasised that they made use of a brownfield site and were in accordance with the Local Plan.

In response to questions from Members, the Agent clarified the following:

·        Currently some parking space was not related to the occupier and was let to third parties.  The planned parking was commensurate to the size of the new building, he was not able to commit to a Travel Plan on behalf of the applicant.

·        Solar panels were not planned under the current proposals, although energy efficiencies, such as those related to the energy systems had been considered but not yet specified.

·        The pedestrian access was a pathway through the trees, the new areas of planting were very small and the accessible parking was located near the EV charging stations.

·        The cycle parking had been planned closer to the building but had been moved for technical reasons.

The Development Manager reported that it was likely solar panels could be retrofitted under permitted development rules.  It was also noted that Highways had not requested a travel plan.  He advised the Committee that if they were minded to request a travel plan, he would seek to delegate the decision to the Chair and Vice-Chair.

Following debate, Cllr Webb proposed the Officer recommendation to approve the application, this was seconded by Cllr Galvin.  Members voted unanimously in favour of the motion and it was:

Resolved:            that the application be approved.

Reason:              The application site is a Brownfield site located within an existing industrial area surrounded by similar style industrial and office buildings. The site is occupied by a large, three storey detached building which serves an Office (Class Use B1) and Warehouse (Class Use B8). The proposal seeks to planning permission for an 1807sq.m extension to provide additional storage space to facilitate future expansion. In the planning balance, it is considered the proposal would be appropriately integrated into the prevailing character and appearance of the locality. Therefore, approval is recommended subject to detailed conditions on the grounds that the scheme is compliant with policies contained in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the Emerging Draft Local Plan 2018.

This report provides information on the planning appeal decisions determined by the Planning Inspectorate between 1 October and 31 December 2022.

The Development Manager presented a report which provided information on the planning appeal decision determined by the Planning Inspectorate between 1 October and 31 December 2022.

He noted the following changes to the calculations for Table 1 and Table 3:

·        Table 1, CYC Planning Appeals Last Quarter Performance,  % Allowed should read 25%

·        Table 3, CYC Planning Appeals 12-month Performance, % Allowed should read 30%

This was because published Government statistics do not include Approval of Detail appeal decisions.

Resolved:            That the report be noted.

Reason:               To keep members informed of the current

position of planning appeals against the Council’s decisions as determined by the Planning Inspectorate.

The Chair thanked the Committee Members, past and present, for their contribution during the administration period.

He placed on record his thanks to the Development Manager as well as officers from Legal and Democratic Services.  He also thanked the Webcasting team and noted their work had enabled meetings to continue during the pandemic.