To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.
Note: A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.
Minutes:
Mr Wood, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: I am a veterinary surgeon and I have a point about the Crediton Garden Centre development. I have lived opposite this proposed development site for roughly six years and this area will always be designated as open countryside. I would like to ask the planning people why this has not been taken into account. 45% of this application site was land only purchased by the applicant in 2017, this land as I said has always been designated as open countryside and has previously had planning permission refused 6 times plus twice on appeal. This was to prevent harm to this countryside area and landscape so surely this should be a material consideration now. I would also like to know why a full landscape assessment has not been carried out, the independent landscape assessment from Cambrian Landscape Architects strongly concluded this development would have a harmful effect on the landscape despite the revisions. Allowing this development would have a major negative effect on the surrounding area and especially the landscape. In addition it will affect my home where I have lived for 6 years and my business as well by making the traffic considerably more congested in this area. It’s already difficult for traffic anyway and this will make it much much worse. Our residential amenity and privacy will also be affected by the noise and disturbance of the delivery and staff vehicles using entrances opposite our property. I hope the councillors will take account of the harm to the landscape and also our local residents’ objections.
Mr Adams, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: – Can the planning officer please explain how the proposed retail restriction could possibly protect gardening retailers in Crediton such as Adams, Tuckers Country Store and Mole Avon? 25% of the footfall in Crediton High Street was shown by the Mid Devon retail study to be generated by my shop Adams. However we and other garden retailers would not be protected at all by the restrictions proposed. If we or other garden retailers in Crediton were to close it could be a tipping point for the towns future. Footfall on the high street would dramatically drop and the town centre would go into decline. Tesco and other supermarkets have some restrictions on general merchandise such as gardening items. However a garden centre just on the edge of town with 4800sq metres of space selling garden items would have an even stronger harmful effect on garden retailers in the town. This harm has not been taken into account in the retail implications report and so the actual impact would be much greater than that reported.
Mr Bond, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: – I own a greengrocers on the high street in Crediton. Can the officer please advise how the retail restrictions would protect the town at Christmas time? The seasonal space of this shop would be over 1080sq metres from October to January, that means half the entire shop would become A1 retail space for at least 4 months of the year. This would make the shop the biggest A1 retail unit in Crediton for a third of the year. This is bound to have a serious impact on gift card and general shops at a key selling time for the high street. It would certainly draw customers away from the town centre. This impact has not been taken into account in the retail impact report and its conclusion that the impact on the town is less than 3% is severely underplaying the impact which is likely to be nearer 10 – 20%.
Mr Schofield, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: – Can the planning officer please tell us why a small 230sq metre shop is being allowed to be developed into something 30 times larger including the café. Also why have the figures claimed that retail space have been taken at face value and not questioned at all by the planning office. The independent assessment from X-cel Planning showed that the scale of this retail development is far larger than what is currently there and is a shop development of inappropriate scale for the countryside location. The actual current shop building is shown to be only 230sq metres and the total rateable space actually on the site today is only 1/3 of what is claimed. Such an incremental development is clearly not appropriately scaled. Why has the impact of the cafes not been considered at all in the planning officers report? This development would have a major impact on café trade in and around Crediton as it would be the largest café in Crediton with a £1m turnover. A major restaurant of this size would most certainly draw people away from using the town centre café’s. The drip drip effect of allowing such an out of town development, especially only 1 mile from the town, will suck trade away and turn the town centre into a ghost town. I would kindly asked councillors to consider that such a large café would cause great harm and destroy café trade and family businesses in Crediton.
Mrs M Green, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - I would like to ask whether it is acceptable that road improvements should be carried out at the expense of public safety? One of the biggest concerns from objectors regarding this application is road safety. Many residents strongly believe that the road would become more unsafe as a result of this development. The independent report from Mark Baker Consulting clearly states that the entrance remains fundamentally unsafe.
Mr Baker says:
“Despite the submission of revised plans the applicant fails to demonstrate that a safe and suitable access can be achieved.
The impact of the proposed redevelopment will be unacceptable.
Accordingly, the planning application should be refused on highway safety grounds”.
I hope that councillors take this into account in making a decision, as safety should never be compromised for road improvements.
Mrs M Tucker, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Can the planning officer please explain how this development can possibly be sustainable? It will be impossible to walk or cycle safely to the development. The westbound bus stop will also still be dangerous, as the 60 mile per hour road would need to be crossed by pedestrians to reach the centre.
Bus access will be limited, as buses to this area don’t run on Sundays, which is one of the busiest days of the week for a garden centre. As a consequence, nearly all trips to this site would be via unsustainable car journeys. The independent report from Mark Baker Consulting strongly concludes that despite the latest revisions the location is not at all sustainable.
One of the key objectives of sustainability is an economic one, but this proposal would clearly undermine the economic viability of Crediton town centre and is therefore contrary to this aim.
My 2nd question is, please can the planning officer answer why this application has not been treated as a change of use? Even though the site is named Crediton Garden Centre, the previous owners operated the site as a retail nursery up until 2017. The use of the site was of a horticultural nature with plants grown on site sold to customers. Other goods sold were secondary to plants grown. However now there will be no growing at all on the site, only retailing of a much fuller range of gardening items. Such a change in use of the site from retail nursery to a large built form destination garden centre, should have been a material consideration. Can the planning officer answer why this has not been treated as material in his assessment?
Ms K Hutchings, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Could councillors please take into account that this development would have a harmful impact on traffic in the area? The independent Highways report from Mark Baker Consulting concludes that despite the revisions there would be a severe and unacceptable impact on the road network due to extra trips being taken, which have been severely underestimated in the Traffic Report.
Traffic flows would actually increase by over 12 times.Parking spaces would grow 9½ times from only 20 spaces, to 194 spaces.This is bound to have a major impact on our local roads, and the area does not have the infrastructure to cope with this extra traffic. Accordingly there would be traffic chaos in the area, and I trust that this will be taken into account in reaching a decision.
Mr D Tucker, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - I would like to ask is it acceptable that small garden centres may close down as a result of this development?
I also ask why the effect on village shops was not taken into account in the retail impact report?
At the last meeting it was said that small garden centres were not viable any more, which is why the applicant had to build something so large. This proposed development would be 3 times larger than our centre at Bow and the café would be 5 times larger. However we would be able to remain viable if such a massive development were not built on our doorstep.
Garden centres are not protected by policy per se. However we actually have a local post office counter and perform an important community role, so we should be protected as a village shopping asset. However because no impact on village shops was taken into account in the retail impact report at all, the effect that this development would have on village facilities has been completely missed.
Mr J Webber, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Can the planning officer please advise why the required reports were not fully provided? Firstly, the retail impact report is only for 3 years rather than the 10 years required by the National Planning Framework. Secondly, a full sequential analysis should have been done for such a major development.
In addition the retail impact report does not take any account of the Government's policy to help the high street, and discourage out of town development. This is especially important to consider at a site only 1 mile from the town centre. Out of town developments draw people away from town centres, and policy advises that they should be resisted by local councils.
Mr Counter, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Can the planning officer please tell us how extra air pollution from this development would be dealt with?
Most of the traffic travelling to this large proposed shop would go directly through Crediton town centre, which is already an air quality control zone.
There would be a massive increase in heavy goods vehicles, delivery vans, coaches and lots of extra cars. It would be in contradiction of policy DM6.
Crediton is currently consulting on how to prevent extra traffic and pollution, so how could the council possibly manage the harm from the extra pollution created?
Cllr S Penny, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Considering that Devon Highways Authority have been involved in the planning of the road layout since the start of the process and have provided advice for a safe design, which have been followed, and that traffic surveys have been carried out by a well-respected independent engineering consultancy, Hydrock; who have been employed by companies such as ASDA, Waitrose, B&Q and Rolls Royce why is this still being quoted as a safety issue?
Hollie Adams, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - Following the first planning meeting the overall building size was reduced from 3335sqm to 2498sqm but this was still considered a concern during the last meeting, where the planning committee asked for further reductions in size. The current design now has an overall size of 1915sqm which is a 43% decrease from the original design. Do you agree that the plans now satisfy the request for a reduced size?
Steve Adams, referring to Item 1 on the Plans List (Crediton Garden Centre) stated: - As the general retail area of the proposed Garden centre is restricted to approximately 200sqm and an independent retail study effectively states that the garden centre will have little impact on any surrounding businesses and, following the last planning meeting, Mid Devon Planning authority had their own studies done by Litchfields. In which they state that due to population growth, expenditure per person and market shares Creditons’ comparison goods turnover will increase by 14.4% by 2022 and the impact that the proposed garden centre will have is between -1.7% and -2.2%. Do you agree that the concern that local businesses will be adversely affected is unfounded?
Mike Blackmore, referring to item 11 on the agenda (Bradford Farm) stated – At the previous meeting the vote was 8 to 3 to refuse this application. This decision was based on photographic evidence and during the discussions by the members several points were raised.
1. Is the building really just a log store?
2. Where do vehicles park to access the log store? On the unauthorised car park?
3. Quality of design and appearance contrary to policy DM2
The suggested wording for the refusal is strong enough for the committee to adhere to their original recommendation and I am trusting this refusal will remain to confirm that the democratic process can prevail against such retrospective and misleading applications.
The Chairman indicated that questions would be answered during the debate on each application.