Removal of
occupancy condition
LOCAL MEMBER: Councillor W Gareth Roberts
Link
to relevant background documents
Minutes:
Removal of
occupancy condition
(a) The
Development Control Manager elaborated on the background of the application,
and noted that it was an application to revoke a planning condition which
limits the use of a building, known as 'The Cottage', Rhiwenfa,
Rhiw, only as a residential unit in association with the adjacent Rhiwenfa property.
The condition was imposed on historical permission number 2/10/113A
dated 20 December 1978 which involved changing the use of the building from a
shop to a house. It was a small single-storey building, which included a
kitchen, a bathroom, a living room and two bedrooms and there was a small car
park in front of it. The proposal did not involve any changes to the property.
The adjacent property and an unclassified road were situated in a central
location in the rural village of Rhiw, and were within the Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty designation.
Reference was made to the Welsh Government
Circular 016/2014: 'Use of planning conditions to manage developments', as it
set the general criteria for the validity of planning conditions. Using
planning conditions, when used appropriately, could enable proposals which
would otherwise possibly be refused approval. The Circular together with
Planning Policy Wales noted that conditions should only be set if they met the
requirements of the six below criteria, namely that they were:
• necessary;
• relevant
to planning;
• relevant
to the development which was to be permitted;
• practical
to enforce;
• detailed;
• reasonable
in all other aspects.
Conditions should not be retained if there was
no genuine reason to do so. It would therefore be required to assess whether
the condition to limit the use of a building, 'The Cottage', Rhiw, only as a
residential unit in association with the adjacent Rhiwenfa
property continued to adhere to the requirements of the six above criteria.
According to the information on the
application, 'The Cottage' had been left to the applicant in a will. It
appeared that the former owner, who used to occasionally use the building to
accommodate his visitors/family/friends in line with the condition, had
separated both properties in his will. The Land Registry document submitted
with the application indicated that both properties were now in separate
occupancy and had been legally separated. Due to the changes in occupancy
circumstances, it was not physically possible for the applicant to comply with
the condition and therefore wished that it was revoked.
The Circular stated that conditions should not
be imposed on land which was outside the applicant's control, although this had
not been true when the condition was originally imposed; the change in
situation made it impossible for the applicant to comply. Based on the change
in circumstances, which was outside planning control, it would be difficult to
argue in an appeal situation that the condition was necessary now given that
the Local Planning Authority would be unable to enforce it due to the
difference in occupancy.
The condition which limited the use of the 'The
Cottage' building only as a residential building in association with the Rhiwenfa property as it stood did not meet with the
requirements of the Welsh Government Circular 016/2014. For this reason, there
was no reasonable justification to retain the condition.
(b) Taking
advantage of the right to speak, the applicant’s representative noted the
following main points:-
• That
both buildings were now in separate legal occupancy
• That
the cottage had existed for decades
• The
cottage did not impact the view
• There
was no room to install an extension on the building
• Although
the applicant was not local, she was the legal owner of the property
(c) It was proposed and seconded to approve
the application.
(d) During the discussion, the following
main observations were noted:
• It
would be sensible to approve
• Circumstances
had changed, a new situation had arisen - needed to adapt in order to move on
Resolved: To approve the application
unconditionally
Supporting documents: