Thanks again to Mark for taking to time to attend the Planning Meeting and report back to us. Here follows his report. In conclusion the town council have refused retrospective planning permission on Michael Jennings personal property in Undercliff Gardens and refused permission on Tesco Express in the High Street.
Further details regarding the Undercliff Gardens planning debacle follow on the blog soon.
Ventnor Town Council Planning Meeting: 23 July 2007
Land Between Boulders and 3 Undercliff Gardens
The objection from the residents of Undercliff area was read out again. There was some debate between the councillors which essentially focused on a realisation that what they had agreed to was very different to the one originally refused.
There was the usual concern as to why the IOW Council planning enforcement team had not taken any action on the several occasions they could have done.
It was pointed out that whatever the Town Council now did, it would not necessarily have any bearing on the decision by IOW Council. It was also confirmed that the matter was going to the Planning Committee.
This was a reflection on the point made at the last Town Council meeting. The role of the Town Council is to be consulted. In many ways it provides a check and balance.
However, as was said again at this meeting, the IOW Council does not have to pay any attention to what the Ventnor Town Council decides.
Robbie Mew made a strong and passionate request that the Town Council adopts a policy of refusing retrospective planning applications, as such situations undermine the integrity of the planning approval process.
The Town Council voted on refusal.
Tesco, High Street
It was made clear in this session that Tesco would automatically appeal against any objections to its plans.
Last Friday 20 July two Highways officers met with some local business people and the county councillor for the area.
Kevin Burton from Highways who attended the Town Council meeting said he did not know why they attended with nothing more than the PDF map developed by Tesco that is on the Planning site. He said he himself had little more information than that map, but was certain a planned independent survey team would iron out any small problems.
Considerable concern was raised by the town councillors over the traffic planning for the Tesco site.
Robbie Mew pointed out clearly that as the Market Street and Pound Lane developments had been allowed to go ahead without a cohesive plan for the whole area that it would now be impossible for Tesco to load/unload in the back area, but would have to use the front.
Considerable debate ranged over the road layout and the delivery lorries.
It was understood that despite Tesco signing a condition originally that it would only use fixed lorries and not articulated lorries, its agents had already appealed against this condition.
The councillors questioned whether Tesco actually had any fixed lorries.
There was concern over the frequency of lorry deliveries, expected to be up to 5 a day each weighing 17 tons.
The Town Council refused the planning application on the grounds of traffic flow and pedestrian re routing not being met satisfactorily.
