Agenda item


Land Adjacent Railway Lines East Of Reservoir, Grimsbury Green, Banbury

Decision:

Approved, That Cherwell District Council raises objection to Oxfordshire County Council

Minutes:

The Committee considered application 18/01826/CM, as a consultee for an application to continue the development permitted by CHN.45/90 (permanent consent for coated Roadstone) without complying with conditions 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13 and 16 (to remove hours of working for asphalt plant to allow operations at any time of day or night and to update plans to relocate existing office, canteen and WC). (OCC Ref.: MW.0117/18) at Land Adjacent Railway Lines East Of Reservoir, Grimsbury Green, Banbury for Tarmac Trading Ltd. Cherwell District Council was a consultee on the application which would be determined by Oxfordshire County Council.

 

In reaching their decision the committee considered the officers’ report and presentation.

 

Resolved

 

That Oxfordshire County Council be advised that Cherwell District Council raises concerns with the proposal for the following reasons:

 

Impact on Residents

·                   Policy ENV1 of the Cherwell Local Plan 1996 confirms that development that is likely to cause materially detrimental levels of noise, vibration, smell, smoke; fumes or other types of environmental pollution should not normally be permitted. In addition, Policy SLE5 of the Cherwell Local Plan Part 1, relating to HS2, requires that the design and construction of the HS2 Rail Link must minimise adverse links on the environment, local economy and communities. Policy SLE5 also requires the construction of HS2 to be managed to minimise the impacts on communities and the environment. In respect of operating hours, CDC object to removing conditions controlling working hours which would allow 24/7 operating. This is due to the potential for objections to be raised by local residents in respect of environmental matters. The District Council's Environmental Protection Officer has requested further information with regard to the proposed direction of travel of the trains, where the locomotive will be when the unloading is carried out and whether the engine needs to be running or whether it can be turned off. The concern is that if the locomotive is idling to the south of the drop off site, then this will increase noise levels for residents near the line south of Hennef Way.

·                   It is requested that the recommendations of the noise report must be followed and should be secured by the imposition of conditions. In this regard, it is noted that a 6m barrier is recommended, however this does not appear on the proposed plans and it should be so that the visual impact of this significant height feature can be assessed.

·                   CDC object to the removal of condition 5 and would recommend that there must be a process in place to deal with any complaints received. This should involve overnight operations ceasing during night time hours until the mitigation is put in place. It is recommended that condition 5 be retained in its current form, or an alternative be imposed with similar wording to the current planning condition 5 to achieve the same safeguards.

·                   The CDC Environmental Protection Officer has recommended that a condition is imposed to control HGV movements - this should restrict HGV movements to between 06:00 - 20:00 Monday - Friday, between 06:00 - 15:00 Saturdays and 08:00 - 15:00 Sundays and Bank Holidays - it is noted the start time on Sundays and Bank Holidays is later than proposed, but this is preferable.

·                   Without sufficient safeguards in place, Cherwell District Council considers there could be conflict with Policy ENV1 of the Cherwell Local Plan 1996 and SLE5 of the Cherwell Local Plan Part 1 in respect of harm to the environment and local communities.

·                   CDC raises no objections to the removal of condition 4 because this was a time limited condition up to the end of December 2003 so this is redundant anyway.

 

Changes to Office/Canteen/WC

·                   With regard to other amendments, the proposal seeks to relocate the existing office, canteen and WC to different positions to the south of the site adjacent to the existing car park, the provision of an additional office and the enlargement of the existing car park. CDC would question whether this should be agreed by a S73 application and would ask that the visual impact of this be fully assessed, including the loss of any existing trees/ vegetation on the embankment. A re-worded condition 2 should be explicit regarding any plans that are approved.

·                   If OCC agree to the rearrangement of development on the site, then CDC raise no objection to the removal of conditions 13 and 16.

 

Legal Agreement

·                   It is noted that there is a S106 attached to CHN.45/90 which included routing for HGV traffic. The S73 application should be linked to this agreement with any updates included as necessary.

Supporting documents: