Proposal: Reserved Matters Application pursuant to application RU.20/1206 for Proposed sports provision, public open space including the creation of pedestrian routes and associated landscaping, access from Chieftain Road to Longcross Train Station, Station car parking and drop off provision, surface and foul water drainage and other associated engineering works.  The application was deferred from the October Planning Committee.

The application had been deferred from a previous meeting. A number of enhancements had been made to the scheme since the previous meeting that were detailed within the officer report. These changes were shown by officers in the presentation and acknowledged by the committee.

During the debate there was a concern raised by a member of the committee about the prospect of the knock on effect of parking in Virginia Water should the car park reach capacity, however the Corporate Head of Development Management and Building Control advised that whilst a betterment to current arrangements at Longcross was being sought and this was to mitigate development at Longcross not to mitigate existing issues at other stations. The concerns about future capacity had been considered by Surrey CC as Highway Authority and officers at RBC. Whilst there was a good degree of confidence that the proposal would be sufficient the developer had proposed to transfer land adjacent to the station to futureproof options in case further mitigation was required at the station. The scheme had the support of the highway authority.

The Corporate Head of Development Management and Building Control confirmed that Surrey County Council intended to adopt the access road to the station, If the application was approved the developer had confirmed that they would agree a provision to maintain the road at their expense under the terms of the proposed amended legal agreement legal agreement. This would allay the resident concern that this cost could be passed on to the management company.

A Member queried the number of disabled and cycle parking spaces available, and it was confirmed that plans for additional cycle parking were in place, whilst the number of disabled spaces had been calculated by Surrey County Council and deemed sufficient.

At a previous meeting members had requested the designing out crime officer be consulted. The Officer had responded and in relation to concerns about safety, the police & crime officer had not raised any objection.

Some members however had concerns over the perception of risk of crime at the site.

No objections had been received from any statutory consultees.

In relation to that outline planning application, the Committee received confirmation that the legal agreement on the developer required full delivery of the schemes within a set period of the granting of planning permission. The clock would start on delivery on the issuing of the permission.

In the event of planning permission being approved an amendment would be made to that legal agreement to include provision of transfer of land to the Council and a provision for the upkeep of the access road.

A motion to grant permission was moved in accordance with officer recommendation.

A named vote was requested on the application and the voting was as follows:

For: 6

Cllrs Willingale, Snow, Bromley, Coen, Cunningham, Nuti

Against: 8

Cllrs Berardi, Howorth, Hulley, Jenkins, King, Mann, Mullens, Whyte

Abstain: 0

Further debate occurred on the item and a number of potential issues were discussed. At the end of the debate a member put forward a motion for refusal on the basis of fear or crime and actual crime and lack of active surveillance. This was supported by those members who were against the original motion.

A vote was held and the resolution to refuse permission was passed by majority of the committee.

            Resolved that –

The CHDMBC be authorised to refuse planning permission for a reason relating to fear of crime and risk of actual crime due to lack of active surveillance for pedestrians utilising the routes to the station.

Ms Loach, an objector, and Ms Little, agent for the applicant, addressed the Committee on this application.