Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Bridgett, Thorne, and Watson.

Minutes of the meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Committee held on Thursday, 19 December 2024 as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.?? 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Planning Committee held on Thursday, 19 December 2024 as circulated, were confirmed as a true record, and were signed by the Chair.

Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required where a matter arises at a meeting; 

1. Which directly relates to Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (‘DPI’) as set out in Appendix B, Table 1 of the Code of Conduct, to disclose the interest, not participate in any discussion or vote and not to remain in room. Where members have a DPI or if the matter concerns an executive function and is being considered by a Cabinet Member with a DPI they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with the matter.

2. Which directly relates to the financial interest or well being of a Other Registrable Interest as set out in Appendix B, Table 2 of the Code of Conduct to disclose the interest and only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak at the meeting but otherwise must not take part in any discussion  or vote on the matter and must not remain the room.

3. Which directly relates to their financial interest or well-being  (and is not  DPI) or the financial well being of a relative or close associate, to declare the interest and members may only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak. Otherwise, the member must not take part in discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room.

4. Which affects the financial well-being of the member, a relative or close associate or a body included under the Other Registrable Interests column in Table 2, to disclose the interest and apply the test set out at paragraph 9 of Appendix B before deciding whether they may remain in the meeting.

5. Where Members have or a Cabinet Member has an Other Registerable Interest or Non Registerable Interest in a matter being considered in exercise of their executive function, they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with it. 

NB Any member needing clarification must contact monitoringofficer@northumberland.gov.uk.  Members are referred to the Code of Conduct which contains the matters above in full. Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter.

sures at the rear of this agenda letter.

Councillor Swinbank declared a pecuniary interest in item 5 of the agenda, planning application 24/00121/FUL and would leave the meeting while the application was discussed and voted upon.

Councillor Hardy – Vice-Chair Planning, in the Chair.

To request the committee to decide the planning applications attached to this report using the powers delegated to it. 

Please note that printed letters of objection/support are no longer circulated with the agenda but are available on the Council’s website at  http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Planning.aspx

The report requested the Committee to decide the planning applications attached to the report using the powers delegated to it. Members were reminded of the principles which should govern their consideration of the applications, the procedure for handling representations, the requirement of conditions and the need for justifiable reasons for the granting of permission or refusal of planning applications.?? 

RESOLVED that this was noted.

Councillor Swinbank left the meeting at this point.

Construction of two holiday lets (Sui Generis) with associated landscaping.

Land North and East of Dunstan House, Dunstan, Northumberland

Construction of two holidays lets (Sui Generis) with associated landscaping.
Land North and East of Dunstan House, Dunstan, Northumberland

J Sharp introduced the application with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. Members confirmed that they had received the addendum report prior to the meeting, as a further 52 objections had been received since the committee report was published.

Following the presentation from the Planning Officer, P Biggers spoke in objection to the application on behalf of residents of Dunstan and gave members the following information:

·         Residents objected to the principle of the development and the harm that further holiday accommodation posed on Dunstan’s community.

·         Residents objected to the scale and extent of the development.

·         There would be an impact of noise and disturbance on residents from the level of use of the site.

·         There would be in impact of the access on the character of the lane through Dunstan.

·         The developments were dwelling housed that were capable of being occupied as such.

·         Policy HOU 10 and CNP 1 were proposed to restrict the use of new properties as holiday lets.

·         Dunstan was 55% holiday accommodation.

·         Residents acknowledged the heugh of the houses had been reduced, however the scale of House 1 was not acceptable and was not subservient to its setting in the context of Dunstan House with the footprint and positioning too close to the site boundary.

·         The development was out of keeping with the development form and character of the village, conflicting with policies STP1 and QOP1.

·         Alongside the existing accommodation in Dunstan House, at peak times there could be 24 people living on the site, which would lead to excessive noise and disturbance for neighbouring residents, conflicting with Policy QOP2.

·         The proposed access road and parking bays would remove the green character and tranquillity of the site.

·         The development was wrong in principle for Dunstan and was too large in scale.

·         Residents requested a condition that the units were for holiday letting only and to exclude use as second homes.

·         Residents requested a condition that hours of working and control of debris during construction were made specific requirements of the construction method statement condition.

·         Residents requested a condition to control external lighting in the interests of protecting dark skies in the AONB.

A Shanley then spoke on behalf of Craster Parish Council and gave members the following information:

·         The Parish Council objected to the proposal and wished for Members to reject the application.

·         The Parish Council felt that the developments were dwelling houses.

·         The development would not support the socio-economic vitality of the village.

·         The Planning Inspector had rejected the previous development.

·         There was no positive contribution to the village to allow the developments and they were out of character to the surrounding area.

·         The development was urbanisation of a rural village.

Lastly, S Palmer spoke in support of the application and gave members the following information:

·         Following the rejection of the previous application, the design of the site was reassessed.

·         The intention of the development was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

For Members’ information to report the agreement monitoring and collection of s106 contributions in the planning process. This is a monthly report and relates to agreements throughout Northumberland during the previous month. 

RESOLVED that this was noted.

The next meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Planning Committee is scheduled for Thursday, 20 March 2025.

The next meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Planning Committee was scheduled for Thursday, 20 March 2025.