Agenda item

Application: 2019/1343/EIA

Location:Eggborough Power Station, Selby Road, Eggborough

Proposal: Hybrid application for demolition of part of the former power station

and ancillary buildings and its redevelopment (i) access into the site, internal roads, employment units, car parking, drainage infrastructure and landscaping and (ii) outline for the scale of redevelopment of the remainder of the site for employment floorspace, proposed buildings with ridge being between 9.5 metres and 24.5 metres, car parking, drainage infrastructure and strategic landscaping

The Principal Planning Officer presented the application which had been brought before brought before Planning Committee as the proposal represented a departure from the Development Plan as it proposed new industrial development within the open countryside. However, Officers considered that there were material considerations which would support the recommendation for approval.

The Committee noted that the application was a hybrid application for demolition of part of the former power station and ancillary buildings and its redevelopment (i) access into the site, internal roads, employment units, car parking, drainage infrastructure and landscaping and (ii) outline for the scale of redevelopment of the remainder of the site for employment floorspace, proposed buildings with ridge being between 9.5 metres and 24.5 metres, car parking, drainage infrastructure and strategic landscaping.

An Officer Update Note had been circulated to Members and made available on the Council’s website which set out extra information for consideration by the Committee, including an additional Member representation requesting deferral until public speaking was available again at Planning Committee meetings, deletion of a policy reference from the report, details of additional consultation responses and a representation received since report publication, corrections to the recommendation and two additional informatives relating to the model railway and public footpaths.

Following a detailed presentation from Officers, Members asked a number of questions on varying aspects of the application, including highways matters such as roundabouts and traffic impact and assessments, which the Highways Officer from North Yorkshire County Council confirmed were acceptable.

In response to a question about how the amounts included in the estimated local economic benefits of the scheme were arrived at, Officers explained that the applicants, who had experience with similar sites around the country, had undertaken a detailed analysis, the results of which had been submitted with the application.

The Committee also discussed alternative access points to the site, including the provision of roundabouts, traffic speed and congestion, structure heights and massing and the permanent retention of the National Grid substation. Officers also confirmed that no response to the consultation on the scheme had been received from the Bat Group.

Following a lengthy debate, it was the overall opinion of the Committee that the application before them amounted to special circumstances for such a development on the site, and amounted to a detailed and well-presented scheme.

It was proposed and seconded that Members were minded to approve the application; a vote was taken on the proposal and was carried.

RESOLVED: That

a)    the Planning Committee were MINDED TO APPROVE the application subject to the schedule of conditions set out in the report and the conditions and additional informatives in the Officer Update Note;

b)   authority be confirmed to Officers to refer the application to the Secretary of State under The Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2009 with the Planning Committee’s resolution to support it;

c)    in the event that the application was not called in by the Secretary of State, authority be delegated to the Planning Development Manager to approve the application, subject to the imposition of the attached schedule of conditions. That delegation would include the alteration, addition or removal of conditions from that schedule if amendment became necessary as a result of continuing negotiations and advice, and provided such condition(s) met the six tests for the imposition of conditions and satisfactorily reflect the wishes of the Planning Committee; and

d)   in the event that the application was called in for the Secretary of State’s own determination, a further report would come to the Planning Committee.