MINUTES OF THE PLANNING AND GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE

HELD AT EPPING HALL ON WEDNESDAY 2^ND JANUARY 2008

PRESENT       Councillors: Miss O D Dunseath (Vice Chairman); Miss M. Starling, J.A. Smith; J Lewis

OFFICER        Bob Whittome (Town Clerk)

Three members of the public were present.

Two members of the public had expressed a desire to address Members of committee. Prior to commencing the meeting the Vice Chairman invited the members of the public to address committee Members:

Mr Mike Compton of High Road, Epping advised committee of his concern about the recent planning appeal decision relating to the McCarthy and Stone development.  His concerns encompassed the following matters: inclusion of residential gardens in the ‘Brownfield’ definition (this national policy placed all gardens and the established patterns of development in historic settlements at risk); a perception of inconsistencies of approach by the two inquiry inspectors; the choice of the EFDC inquiry teams was viewed as very poor and inept.

Mr Jay Vyas of Beech Place also spoke about the same matter.  His perceptions of the case were: all the evidence available to EFDC was not presented; 700 letters of objection were mislaid by EFDC; the presentation and documentation presented by the EFDC team was poor, and specifically it was stated that EFDC did not have a problem with the excessive height of the proposal’s middle section or intrusion into the 45’ vision zone from no.15 High Road whereas these matters had been agreed in pre-meetings to be areas of concern.  Mr Vyas requested Epping Town Council to consider what support could be given to residents aggrieved by the decision.

Following these statements the Clerk advised Mr Compton and Mr Vyas that the matter would receive consideration by committee at its next meeting and the Vice Chairman opened the formal meeting.    

321.     APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors N Hines (Town Mayor), and Mrs J Hedges.

322.     CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

Committee RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meeting on 18^th December 2007

323.     DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No Member declared interests for any item of the agenda

324.     REPORTS AND INFORMATION NOT REQUIRING A DECISION OF COMMITTEE

The Clerk advised Members of the imposition of a tree preservation order (TPO/EPF/12/07) at 25 Church Hill.  Councillor Smith requested the Clerk to consider what measures could be taken to better inform the Civic Award process.  

325.     PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Seven applications for planning permission were considered and the plans inspected. 

326.     AMENDED PLANS (EPF/2285/07): 6 OAK ROAD – REBUILDING OF EXISTING SINGLE STOREY STRUCTURE AT SIDE AND NEW SINGLE STOREY REAR EXTENSION         

Committee reviewed its previous comments in respect of this application and agreed to NOTE the amended plan and make no further comment.

327.     CONSULTATION DRAFT OF EPPING CONSERVATION AREA CHARACTER APPRAISAL

Committee considered the above document and RESOLVED that the following comments should be made:

Overall committee was happy with the layout and approach of the document.  However, it was a concern that the project appeared to have suffered considerable delay particularly in view of the pressure for extensive redevelopment in Epping.

In respect of page 25 section 7.7; with the current mix of residential, leisure, retail and commercial uses in both the conservation area and its surrounding area, care will need to be exercised to minimise night time disturbances.  This will require close and detailed consideration to the impact on this matter of both licensing and planning proposals.

In respect of page 28 section 8.4; It must be recognised that several of the new shop fronts which are criticised as being out of character in the conservation area have been approved quite recently by the district council.  These appear to set a poor precedent which is now difficult to overturn.  If the conservation area status is to have a purpose, it must attempt to improve the current situation by looking more closely at what kinds of shop front are in keeping with the local vernacular.  There will also be a need to resist (or at least sensitively modify) the ‘branding’ objectives pursued by national chain stores.  

Page 29; the bus shelters are the responsibility of Epping Town Council which attempts to maintain them on a rolling programme.  The market is a ‘charter market’ (first granted in 1253) operated by Epping Town Council on each Monday.  The market area is adopted highway land under the control of Essex County Council but traffic orders allow its use by Epping Forest District Council as a parking area on Tuesday to Sunday.  The poor state of the market area is due to the general lack of focus and co-ordinated planning by the three councils in regard to the use of this space.  This situation is detrimental to the operation of Epping’s historic market and threatens the market with serious decline.  Particularly, in the area of the market, there exists an opportunity to set a fitting theme which reflects Epping’s history and heritage and provides Epping with a fitting ‘sense of place’.  Such a theme, once agreed, could be used to influence development, improvement or maintenance of the conservation area.  It may be possible by this means to ensure future changes to the conservation area are beneficial.

Page 33; 1-82 High Street (actually this area is High Road); the draft appears to recognise the importance to Epping of the semi rural (and distinctive market town layout of this area, which is one of the gateways to both Epping and Epping Forest).  However, no plan to protect the settlement pattern has been put forward.  Recent development approvals threaten to radically alter this historic settlement layout.  Consideration should be given by the district council as to whether or not it is acceptable for this gateway area to become dominated by tall and dominant flatted development.  If the district council agrees with the town council that this is unacceptable, consideration should be given to including this area between the existing conservation areas the protection of being incorporated into the conservation area.

On a general point, the town council feel consideration should be given to the future protection of the area immediately to the north of Station Road and East of Hemnall Street which has considerable architectural merit.

Committee also inspected details of several bus shelters and gave guidance to the Clerk in regard to a fitting type of shelter for the replacement of the two shelters in the High Street.

328.     EFDC PLANNING DECISIONS

Committee NOTED the decisions of Epping Forest District Council Area Planning Sub-Committee East.

GRANTED:  

REFUSED: