Erection of 25 affordable units, access, car parking,
landscaping and associated works
LOCAL MEMBER: Councillor R Medwyn Hughes
Decision:
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.
Minutes:
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.
Supporting documents: