Planning Application No UPT/18307/3
Location – No 1 Beeching Close.
Application – Erection of a 2 storey dwelling.
Applicant – Mr D Curran
Application Date Sept 2008
Parish Council Reply –
Upton Parish Council are very concerned about the return of this application and would like to be informed why the District Council have accepted it again still containing all the existing omissions and inaccuracies. The only changes we note have added to those inaccuracies since the entrance splay may now be 11m, 33m, 45m or 90m depending on which drawing or document you are reading.
As far as the re-submission goes, we repeat and resubmit all of our objections of our letter of the 2 July with minor changes and the correction of a typing error (it should be 8° not 8%).
We note 2 changes in the re-submission:
1. That the fence has been moved back. Do the Highways Department accept that the fence is now on the site boundary? If so will the Highways Department accept responsibility for the area outside the fence and arrange for the removal of the earth that the Arboricultural Report claims is killing the trees in that area.
2. The entrance splay has been made deeper by 0.4 metres. Such a change is irrelevant, it is not the depth of splay but the number of trees/bushes that have to be cut back and kept cut back that affects the visibility. These trees/bushes are outside the site boundary and are presumably the responsibility of the Highways Department, will they agree to cut them back when they have already stated that it would be detrimental to the area. We object to any removal of bushes or trees from this area.
We cannot comment on the length of the splay as we have no idea from the information pack which drawing or document you are working to. Last time we thought the splay length was meant to be 66 metres but it was shown as 33m or 11m on the drawings this time the confusion is even worse.
May we return to and re-emphasise our objection to the proposed access.
How will the contractors go about constructing the access ramp. We understand that the owner of Beeching Close will not allow it to be used by contractors vehicles, this means that all work in cutting down trees, bringing in materials and levelling with a bulldozer will have to be done direct off Station Road with all contractor vehicles also parked in the road. Since the trees cannot be felled across Beeching Close these will have to be felled down onto the road. Are you thinking of closing the road for a few days when that road is so vital to the community as explained in our letter of July 2nd?
Even after construction an 8° slope is 1 in 7, a very steep slope for heavy contractor and delivery lorries negotiating a sharp bend on a recently laid ramp with a temporary surface trying to turn onto a well used road that is part of a national cycleway with poor visibility. To make it even more dangerous both the road and the ramp have fall-away banks on both sides. The alternative is off-loading in Station Road and using smaller vehicles to take the materials down to the site, for safety reasons this will mean temporary closure of the road.
Will you please ensure that you consult the Health and Safety Dept that will be responsible for the site and if you even consider saying yes to this application please can we have an on-site meeting with a representative of the Highway’s Dept and the Police to satisfy our very strong concerns regarding safety and what appears to be inevitable road closures.
In our 2 July* letter we made it very clear that in our opinion this application is totally unacceptable, this note only deals with the changes in the re-submission and re-emphasises our objection to the proposed access. We are however seriously concerned that you apparently accepted the building, which is totally out of character with the area and with this village and despite all the errors on the plans.
May we repeat our request for a letter from you explaining why you have accepted an application, not once but twice that contains so many inaccuracies, we are fortunate to have a member of our council who is able to fully understand all the drawings, other councils may be less fortunate. If you intend to take any notice at all of Parish Council comments please ensure you send out sensible information.
We are also concerned that these applications are incomplete and that you allow agreements on drainage etc to be secretly negotiated between yourselves and the applicant without any notification to Parish Councils as in the case of Ravello (Chilton Road) and to be repeated in this application.
We want to work with you to achieve better planning for this parish please do not continue to ignore our requests and our grave concerns.
District Council Decision – Permitted with conditions
Note
All drawings and other hard copy documents connected with the above application will be destroyed after 3 years.
For further information on this application visit www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk and click on Planning and Planning Applications using the above Ref.No.