Following an application by Cheetah Marine to vary conditions of the planning permission granted last year, Sean Strevens was invited to the Town Council Meeting to clarify the situation and explain why the variation of conditions were being requested.
Variation to Condition 14 was the first to be discussed. Mr Strevens explained that the request to have the ‘in perpetuity’ label removed from the condition attached to the provision of the harbour master’s office was at the request of both theirs and the Council’s legal teams and was ‘out of their hands’.
He explained that if in the future the IOW Council decide to change the way that they run the harbour master’s role, ie. if they want to cut costs and revert back to running out of a van rather than paying rent on an office space, that Cheetah Marine would be in breach of their planning permission if the space was not used for this purpose.
It appeared that the problem was a result of a ‘cock up’ by the Planning Department who did not consult their legal team when applying the ‘in perpetuity’ condition to the permission.
Val Taylor commented that time, money and inconvenience could have been avoided had the IW Council made it clear that this was the reason for the variation of condition.
With regard to the same condition, Debby Robinson questioned Mr Strevens on his views of the removal of the phrase “will retain the main use of the buildings in a marine related employment use” from the condition, but he scratched his head and said he didn’t know anything about it and that he believed the issue was with the harbour master’s office.
This is particularly worrying – as pointed out by the CPRE in their letter to the council, the requirement for marine use of the site is a cornerstone of the Eastern Esplanade Design brief and should remain that way (comments to the application can be viewed on the planning website.
We do not understand why ‘marine use’ needs to be removed from the condition. If anyone can shed any further light on this, do please get in touch.
John Farrant agreed to write to Bill Murphy stating the TCs concern at the lack of information provided when being required to make important decisions such as this.
Debby Robinson went on to question Mr Strevens about the change of plans for the cafe area, pointing out that it had grown in size and seemed to be more than the ‘tea and sandwich’ type cafe spoken about during the last planning application and now looked much more like a restaurant.
Mr Strevens explained that originally just a kiosk was planned, but during the planning process, they were encouraged by the planning department to expand this to something larger.
The space was due to be rented out to Alan Best (who currently runs Ventnor Bay Cafe) who would supply cafe refreshments during the day to users of the paddling pool/seafront and in the evening possibly run a fresh fish restaurant.
Val Taylor and Maureen Cawley both felt it was inappropriate for DR to bring up this item as it was not part of the variation (although in fact, the cafe is referred to in the change of condition and we would agree that it was important to clarify).
With regard to variation of condition 11, Mr Strevens stated that Southern Water had previously stated that the sewage pipe which runs under the proposed site was inactive.
However, they recently advised that this was in fact live and therefore the footprint of the storage building would need to be changed. Cheetah Marine were in discussion with the planning office on a new design which would be required to go through planning permission in the normal way.
Steve Milford asked Mr Strevens whether he could be more specific on when the building was likely to be completed, to which Mr Stevens replied that it was however long the planning department took, but that it would have to be built within five years of the lease being activated.
After Mr Strevens was thanked for his time and left the meeting, it was agreed by all, that the correct decision was made to refuse the variation of conditions at the previous meeting based on the information that had been provided with, and that they would not reverse that decision.
Debby Robinson referred to the Cheetah Marine letter of 9th May that is currently on the Planning website, pointing out that the legal reasons referred to by Mr Strevens at the meeting tonight were not mentioned in the letter and therefore questioned his change of tone.
Councillors saw no reason why any of the applications (below) discussed tonight should not be approved.
LDC/04288/E, P/01057/08
The Coach House Bonchurch Manor Bonchurch Shute Ventnor Isle of Wight PO381NU
Certificate of lawfulness for continued use of property as dwelling
TCP/05163/F, P/01026/08
Knights Court High Street Ventnor Isle of Wight PO38
Telecommunications installation comprising five antennas mounted on rooftop handrail one wall mounted transmission dish and associated equipment cabinet (revised scheme)
TCP/11511/G, P/01014/08
Flat 3 Sea Cliff Belgrave Road Ventnor Isle Of Wight PO381JD
Revision to approved balcony on front elevation
