Agenda item

Erection of 25 affordable units, access, car parking, landscaping and associated works

 

LOCAL MEMBER: Councillor R Medwyn Hughes

 

Link to relevant background documents

DECISION:

To delegate powers to the Senior Planning Manager to approve the application subject to the applicant completing a Section 106 agreement to ensure a financial contribution for the provision of open spaces and the following conditions:- 

1.    Five years.

2.    In accordance with the plans/details submitted with the application.

3.    Compliance with the landscaping plan along with future maintenance work.

4.    Welsh Water condition relating to submitting a foul water scheme for the development.

5.    Secure a plan/arrangements to provide the affordable units e.g. mix, tenure, occupancy criteria, timetable and arrangements to ensure that units are affordable now and in perpetuity.  

6.    Compliance with the recommendations of the Ecological Appraisal and Arboricultural Impact Assessment.

7.    Agree on details regarding Welsh names for the development before the residential units are occupied for any purpose along with advertising signage informing and promoting the development.

8.    Working hours limited to 08:00-18:00 Monday to Friday; 08:00-13:00 Saturday and not at all on Sunday and Bank Holidays.

9.    Submission of a Construction Method Statement to include measures to reduce noise, dust and vibration to be agreed with the LPA.

10.  Ensure that the two windows facing the gable end of number 11 Euston Road have permanent opaque glass.

11.  Relevant conditions from the Transportation Unit.

12.   Submission of the design and use of solar panels.

Note: Need to submit a sustainable drainage system application to be agreed with the Council.

Erect 25 affordable dwellings, access, parking facilities, landscaping and associated works

 

Attention was drawn to the late observations form.

 

a)                  The Senior Development Control Officer highlighted that this was a full application to provide 25 affordable units in the form of self-contained flats/apartments, new access, formalising and providing 13 parking spaces, landscaping and associated work on the former Railway Institute site on Euston Road within the Bangor development boundary as contained in the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan, 2017 (LDP). This site had not been designated for any specific use.

 

Bangor was identified as an Urban Service Centre in Policy TAI1, and this policy supported housing developments to meet the LDP's Strategy (Policy PS17), via housing designations and suitable windfall sites within the development boundary, and were based on the indicative provision contained within the LDP itself. It was reported that Bangor, by completing the existing land bank, had reached its indicative growth level of 969 units and, in such circumstances, consideration would be given to the units that had been completed thus far within the Key Centres tier where there was a shortage of 371 units. Under such circumstances, confirmation would need to be received with this particular application outlining how the proposal would address the needs of the local community. 

 

·         Provision of 25 residential units, 100% affordable, on an accessible brownfield site within the development boundary

·         Although the capacity figures for Bangor had been reached, the mix of units proposed to be provided here was based on the demand figures for the local needs for the local area and of flexible occupancy as the plan was delivered with support from Welsh Government's Social Housing Grant and from this perspective, all units will be subject to social rent levels.

·         As shown in SPG: Housing Mix (2018), the demand for one and two bedroom units on social rent will increase in the near future with one-bedroom units increasing from 13% to 26% and two-bedroom units increasing from 32% to 44%. It also showed that the demand for three-bedroom social rent units will reduce from 50% to 23%.

·         The units would be designed to the requirements of the Wales Development Quality Requirement (2021)

 

It was explained that the proposal meant providing 100% affordable residential units with Policy TAI 15 stating that as Bangor was situated within the South Arfon Rural and Coastal Area in the LDP, that providing 20% affordable housing was viable, which was the equivalent to providing five affordable units in the context of this application. As the proposal involved providing 100% affordable units, and provided there was a need for these types of units, the proposal met the requirements of Policy TAI15 of the LDP.

 

It was considered that the application site was a previously developed site (brownfield) that was suitable for residential use in an area which included high density residential dwellings that were accessible to alternative modes of transport to using a private car.

 

In the context of visual amenities, the site was prominent within the local streetscape and the catchment area included buildings of a varied size, height, elevations and era including modern, Victorian age and Edwardian age dwellings, a Victorian railway station and more modern dwellings/flats. It was added that the design principles of the proposed building followed those principles discussed by the Planning Inspector during the previous appeal for 48 units for students and these can be noted according to scale, design, setting and landscaping. It was considered that the proposal was acceptable on the basis of the impact of visual amenities and it was envisaged that in the end it would create a positive contribution to the character of this section of the streetscape.

 

In the context of general and residential matters, it was highlighted that residential dwellings were located to the north, south and west of the application site together with their private gardens/amenity spaces.  It was noted that the nearest dwelling to the proposed building was number 11 Euston Road with a 6m void between its southern gable end and northern gable end at the highest part of the proposed building (which reflected the void approved on appeal). To support the application, a Report on Daylight and Sunlight and the impact of the development on nearby property as well as on the occupants of numbers 1-8 and 11-12 Euston Road, and 11-14 Denman Road, was submitted. The Report concluded:-

·         The Post Office's distribution unit is not a domestic property/residential dwelling and therefore is not subject to the requirements of relevant British Standards.

·         The main impact on loss of light and shadowing will fall on the garden of number 11 Euston Road, which would be likely to lose 0.8 times its current sunlight value due to the setting of the new building (the garden will then receive 41% sunlight compared with the minimum of 50% which is stated by the British Research Establishment (BRE).

·         However, the Report stated that the garden will continue to receive a reasonable amount of sunlight, particularly during the summer when any shadowing is at its lowest and when most use is made of gardens, but with more shadowing during the winter when minimum use will be made of gardens.  In relation to loss of privacy and overlooking, the property that may be affected the most was number 11 Euston Road. This part of the proposed building will be a two-storey building of the same roof height as number 11 with two narrow windows facing number 11 on the ground floor and on the first floor. Due to the proximity of these windows to the southern gable end of number 11, the applicant had confirmed that two windows of opaque glass would be used to mitigate against any overlooking and loss of privacy.

 

In the context of transportation matters, it was noted that the proposal included providing 13 parking spaces with access to these under the eastern part of the proposed building. It was highlighted that in the lower section of the site the Transportation Statement confirmed that the parking provision and the nearby roads network and the access to the site were suitable to provide for the expected volume of traffic created by the proposed development. Following undertaking the statutory consultation process, the Transportation Unit had no objection in principle to the development, subject to the inclusion of relevant standard conditions.

 

Policy ISA 5 of the LDP states that new housing proposals for 10 or more dwellings, in areas where existing open space cannot meet the needs of the proposed housing development should provide suitable provision of open spaces in accordance with the Field in Trust benchmark standards. The current information received from the Joint Planning Policy Unit in relation to this particular application confirms that there is a lack of children's play areas and a lack of play areas with equipment for children in the catchment area of the application site. Therefore, to this end, a financial contribution of £2712.01 will be required. This can be secured by arranging a planning obligation under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990

 

It was considered that the proposal, as submitted, would improve the visual appearance of the site that was currently dormant and it was believed that the fact that 100% of the units were affordable would respond to the needs already identified and would greatly contribute towards the city's affordable housing needs. No substantial harmful impact contrary to local planning policies and relevant national guidance had been identified. 

 

b)            Taking advantage of the right to speak, the applicant’s agent noted the following comments:

·         The brownfield site had been empty since the demolition of the former Institute building in 2016.

·         The site had been ignored and was overgrown, this was not pleasing to nearby neighbours in Railway Terrace and Penchwintan. 

·         Over the years several planning applications had been permitted on the site and the latest consent was to construct 48 student living units.

·         The development for students included living units over several levels and the size of the building was not too dissimilar to this application by Adra. 

·         The extant planning permission would not expire until 8 September 2022, and the land owner may implement it at any time prior to this.

·         The students flats application established the principle of a multi-floor building on the site for living purposes.

·         Adra's proposal was to provide 25 affordable flats, a smaller number with a variety of self-contained flats, with bin and bicycle storage and safe parking out of view underneath the building  

·         The new proposal considered the relationship with the surrounding environment more carefully than the permission for student flats. 

·         Adra proposed to formalise the parking spaces on Euston Road and this would give Gwynedd Council an opportunity to implement the parking permits scheme to prevent any railway users from parking on the hill.  Currently, this prevents possible parking spaces on Euston Road for nearby residents. 

·         Every expert consultee supported this development and there was no technical reason to refuse the application.  

·         The application proposed building 25 affordable flats for local people. There were 232 applicants for 1 or 2 bedroom flats on the waiting list for the Hendre ward, Bangor - this increased to 2051 applicants for the whole o Bangor.  These figures demonstrate the huge need for affordable housing in Bangor.

·         The community felt frustrated about student flats that have been permitted over the years, without an option of affordable flats for local people. 

·         The application offered a scheme to provide 25 affordable units that would be a valuable contribution to satisfying the specific need in Bangor in accordance with the aims of local and national policies - this should be a significant factor in favour of the proposal in terms of planning policy.  

 

c)            It was proposed and seconded to approve the application.

 

d)            During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members:

·         That the plan was one to be welcomed

·         It was an improvement to the existing plan for student accommodation  

·         It was an excellent plan for community flats

 

RESOLVED to delegate powers to the Senior Planning Manager to approve the application subject to the applicant completing a Section 106 agreement to ensure a financial contribution for the provision of open spaces and the following conditions:- 

1.         Five years.

2.         In accordance with the plans/details submitted with the application.

3.         Compliance with the landscaping plan along with future maintenance work.

4.         Welsh Water condition relating to submitting a foul water scheme for the development.

5.         Secure a plan/arrangements to provide the affordable units e.g. mix, tenure, occupancy criteria, timetable and arrangements to ensure that units are affordable now and in perpetuity.  

6.         Compliance with the recommendations of the Ecological Appraisal and Arboriculture Impact Assessment.

7.         Agree on details regarding Welsh names for the development before the residential units are occupied for any purpose along with advertising signage informing and promoting the development.

8.         Working hours limited to 8:00-18:00 Monday to Friday; 08:00-13:00 Saturday and not at all on Sunday and Bank Holidays.

9.         Submission of a Construction Method Statement to include measures to reduce noise, dust and vibration to be agreed with the LPA.

10.       Ensure that the two windows facing the gable end of number 11 Euston Road have permanent opaque glass.

11.       Relevant conditions from the Transportation Unit. 

12.       Submission of the design and use of solar panels.

 

Note: Need to submit a sustainable drainage system application to be agreed with the Council.