Issue - meetings

Conversion of existing building into 6no. (Use Class C3) residential units with associated bike store, parking and landscaping works at Croxley House, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth.

Recommendation: that planning permission be granted.

The application was for conversion of existing building into 6no. (Use Class C3) residential units with associated bike store, parking and landscaping works at Croxley House, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth.

The planning application and associated listed building consent application at agenda item 5 were considered together.

The Planning Officer provided an update that, whilst it was not a planning matter, the applicant had been in contact with the Council’s Property Team regarding rights of access and discussions were ongoing.

Parish Councillor Andrew Gallagher (Croxley Green Parish Council) spoke on the application.

The agent spoke in favour of the application.

Points raised by the speaker against the proposal included: concerns about inadequate parking, access across The Green and safety at the road junction; concerns about parking of construction vehicles during development and possible parking on The Green; and the narrowness of the access track.

Points raised by the speaker in favour of the proposal included: the proposal would enable a site which had been vacant since 2021 to be quickly brought back into use and would provide 6 residential dwellings; the application had been shaped through positive and proactive engagement; it would ensure that the physical external presence of the building remained untouched and would respect its listing and local importance; there were no technical objections; and the proposal was policy compliant.

In response to the concerns raised by the Parish Councillor, the Planning Officer responded that the slight shortfall (2 spaces) in parking provision against the policy requirement was acknowledged; however, the provision of 2 spaces per unit plus 3 visitors’ spaces was considered acceptable and the parking shortfall was not deemed sufficient to justify refusal for the reasons set out in the report.  With regard to safety issues, the Highways Officer had reviewed the details and did not consider that there were any highways safety reasons for refusal.  The concerns about the access and construction traffic were understood, and a Construction Management Plan could be conditioned as part of the full application in order to address concerns around materials delivery and contractor parking.

Committee Members asked questions about the details of the application which were responded to by officers.  The Committee’s discussions included the following:

·       The Planning Committee had previously resolved (in November 2023) to grant a change of use to a children’s nursery, although that decision had not yet been issued due to the lack of the required S106 agreement.  That application had included a proposal to widen the existing access track, which had been considered necessary to make the application acceptable in planning terms.   The application which was now before the committee did not propose any alterations to the access track, and the Highways Authority considered that the existing access arrangements were acceptable in terms of the current application.  The Planning Officer clarified that the applicant’s discussions with the Council’s Property Team related to rights of access across the land rather than any proposal to change the access.

·       In response to a question from a Committee Member as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 123