Agenda item

Variation of Condition 16 (Delivery times) on approved planning application 12/02835/VARYCO in order to alter the time of deliveries to the M&S store.

Marks And Spencer Simply Food, 1A Westmorland Retail Park, Cramlington, Northumberland.

Variation of Condition 16 (Delivery times) on approved planning application 12/02835/VARYCO in order to alter the time of deliveries to the M&S store.

Marks and Spencer Simply Food, 1A Westmorland Retail Park, Cramlington, Northumberland.

J Murphy, Planning Area Manager provided an introduction to the application with the aid of a power point presentation.  Members confirmed that they had viewed the site visit videos circulated in advance of the meeting.

Councillor Swinburn addressed the Committee speaking as the local Ward Councillor for the application.  His comments included the following information:-

·       The application referenced a number of policies related to sustainable development, growth in employment and the economy, ensuring a vital and vibrant town centre all common within this type of report, however it failed to mention the Council’s values in its Corporate Plan top of which was “residents first”.

·       Councillors were there to represent the residents who elected them and it was those very residents who had contacted him to complain about noise after hours and before hours from the town centre retail area, and who had attended Town Council meetings asking for help with this.

·       The residents had shown flexibility during the pandemic, not only those who lived around the town centre but those who lived on every road lined with residential properties that led into the town centre and they relied upon their local representatives to speak on their behalf.

·       The substantial noise survey supplied by the applicant contained a significant amount of detail however it failed to acknowledge the properties at either side of the site in question one of which was a new development of sheltered housing for the elderly.

·       He highlighted the reference to paragraph 185 of the NPPF which sought to ensure that new development was appropriate for its location and the information that had been quoted and was relied upon for this application was incorrect as this was not a new development, it was an existing business and therefore the use of this policy in the noise survey was inappropriate.

·       The business had enjoyed a relaxation in regulations due to the covid pandemic and residents had been prepared to give flexibility, this could not become the normal practice.  Nearby residents and those living on the surrounding routes that feed the town centre should not have to be disturbed for deliveries at 5 am each morning. Nothing earlier than 6am should be permitted. 

·       Since the store opened some years ago, even more development had taken place along those routes and people did not want to be woken up with the sound of HGVs driving past their houses delivering earlier and earlier, or as stated in the report, ‘during a night-time period’. This should not be allowed to happen setting a precedence to which then became the norm.

·       Noise carried during the night and his own experience on being woken at 5am to the sound of commercial rubbish being emptied when staying elsewhere was referenced and the response when he raised this with the owners had been “the Council approved it”.  He asked that this not be allowed to happen in this case just to fit in with a corporate timetable.

·       He asked that the Committee stuck with the Council’s values and put “residents first”.

Councillor Swinburn took no further part in this application.

In response to questions from Members of the Committee the following information was provided:-

·       All dwellings to the west of the site had been notified i.e. Lochcraig Avenue, the dwellings to the south had not been notified and it was all commercial development to the north.

·       It was thought that the hours of operation had been extended in April 2020 as a result of relaxation of legislation to assist businesses during the covid pandemic.  M&S nor Public Protection had received any noise complaints due to the extended hours.

·       It was not known if any complaints had been made to the Town Council.

Councillor Robinson proposed acceptance of the recommendation to approve the application as outlined in the report which was seconded by Councillor Dunbar.

Councillor Flux advised that a lot of trees, which previously formed a sound barrier, had been removed during the installation of the green bridge over the railway line however there had been some replacement planting undertaken but this would take some time to become established.   Councillor Bowman asked if a condition could be added to any permission granted for more tree planting to be undertaken should complaints arise in the future, however Councillors Robinson and Dunbar did not consider this necessary and were happy for their existing motion to approve in line with the officer’s report to continue.

Members expressed some sympathy however felt that if there was significant disturbance then there would have been more objections received to the application and a response provided by the Town Council.  It was also advised that there was a road, a high speed rail line also used for freight traffic and a park between the delivery area and nearest properties to the West. 

A vote was taken on the motion to approve the application in line with the recommendation in the report as follows: FOR 9; AGAINST 0; ABSTENTION 1.

RESOLVED that the application be GRANTED for the reasons and subject to the conditions as outlined in the report.