Agenda item

DM/16/03318/FPA - Land West of Wingate and South of Junction of A181 and Durham Road, Wingate

Construction of 10 holiday lodges, access, associated landscaping, roadways, lighting, drainage and other services.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Senior Planning Officer regarding an application for the construction of 10 holiday lodges, access, associated landscaping, roadways, lighting, drainage and other services on land west of Wingate and south of Junction of A181 and Durham Road, Wingate (for copy see file of Minutes).

 

C Harding, Senior Planning Officer gave a detailed presentation of the application which included a site location plan, aerial photograph of the site, site photographs looking south from the A181 and proposed site layout.

 

Councillor Clare, in moving approval of the application, informed the Committee that tourism was a future building block for County Durham.  He expressed surprise that there was no comment from the Coal Authority and sought clarity on this.  Councillor Clare also referred to proposed Condition 15 of the permission which related to occupancy and informed the Committee that on previous applications such as this the condition had referred to an 11-month occupancy.  For consistency Councillor Clare considered that this Condition should be amended.

 

The Senior Planning Officer replied that the proposed site was not within a high risk coal mining area and therefore the Coal Authority had offered no comment.   With reference to Condition 15 the Senior Planning Officer informed the Committee that this was merely the way the condition had been written and could be amended to stipulate 11 months.  N Carter, Planning and Development Solicitor added that there was more than one way to word a condition such as this and it was not felt necessary to impose a restriction on the totality of months that the lodges could be occupied.

 

Councillor Tinsley referred to the previous imposition of an 11 month occupancy rule and also the requirement for the maintenance of a register of the names of the owner-occupiers and questioned the reasonableness of this when the leaseholder would be taking on the restriction and the freeholder the responsibility for maintaining such register.

 

The Planning and Development Solicitor informed the Committee that the requirement to maintain a register of occupancy was a standard condition.  The proposed conditions relating to the register and the term of occupancy were in his view acceptable as outlined in the report, however, if Members wished, delegated authority could be given to Officers to look at this again in greater detail and amend if necessary, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.

 

Councillor Shield mentioned that he had seen a condition restricting occupation to 50 weeks of the year on other applications and for consistency was of the view that the same wording should be used here for Condition 15.

 

Councillor Nicholson, in seconding approval of the application, informed the Committee that the ability to attract more tourists was paramount, with tourist spend increased significantly when overnight stays were involved.

 

Resolved:

(i)            That the application be approved subject to the Conditions contained in the report;

(ii)          That delegated authority be granted to the Head of Planning and Assets to finalise the wording of Condition 15 as appropriate, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.

Supporting documents: