Agenda item

The proposal before Members was for the construction of an A1 food store within Hornchurch town centre. Planning permission had previously been granted to demolish the former bingo hall building which currently occupied the site.  

Following deferral at the Committee meeting on 22 December 2016, the application was again deferred at the 2 February 2017 Committee meeting, on the sole issue of vehicular access/egress concerns at the site entrance onto the High Street. Members had made it clear that they were otherwise satisfied with the proposal.

Members had been concerned about the risk of the proposal exacerbating traffic congestion in the surrounding network, especially in the High Street, and had asked Staff to seek that the applicant design a workable and enforceable scheme to address the impact of vehicle movement into and from the High Street, likely to involve a left turn in and left out only configuration. Members had set out that this should consider physical engineering solutions, including for example reconfiguring the access layout, its detailed position, restrictions at the site entrance/ exit to restrict direction of vehicle travel, and potentially highway based measures such as road markings, CCTV and signage with these to be met at the developers cost and covered by legal agreement as necessary. Members had also wished to see potential use of signage and promotion of restrictions to store users to optimise enforcement of the measures.

Members had also wanted to see the chosen solution emerge from a high level option appraisal of other potential but dismissed alternatives.

In response, the applicant had considered a range of options for the site access arrangements and prepared an appraisal, which was set out in the report.

During the debate Members discussed traffic and pedestrian movements when accessing and egressing the site.

Members also discussed the options for the provision of CCTV cameras and the possibility of introducing moving traffic contraventions.

The Committee noted that the proposal qualified for a Mayoral CIL contribution of £14,940 and it was RESOLVED that the proposal was unacceptable as it stood but would be acceptable subject to the applicant entering into a Legal Agreement under Section 106 of the Town and

Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended), to secure the following:

•         A financial contribution of £48,750 to be paid prior to the opening of the store to be used for the following:

          i) highway works in respect of pavement improvements to the High Street.

•         All contribution sums shall include interest to the due date of expenditure and all contribution sums to be subject to indexation from the date of completion of the Section 106 agreement to the date of receipt by the Council.

•         The Developer/Owner to pay the Council’s reasonable legal costs associated with the Legal Agreement prior to the completion of the agreement irrespective of whether the agreement is completed.

•         Payment of the appropriate planning obligations monitoring fee prior to the completion of the agreement.

That it be delegated to the Assistant Director of Regulatory Services to grant planning permission subject to prior completion of the legal agreement but incorporate into that a requirement that the developer make an additional contribution to cover the funding for provision and implementation of a CCTV camera to monitor compliance with highway regulations in the vicinity of the site access and also to cover the costs of adding this to the schedule of Moving Traffic Offences. If the latter two items weren’t agreed then consideration of the item would be brought back to Committee for determination.