Agenda item

Erection of six storey building to provide 2,746 sqm of office (Class B1a) floorspace and 107sqm of floorspace for Class B1a/A2/A5 floorspace with associated car parking, cycle and bin storage and landscaping.

The Committee received the report of the Development Management Section Head, including the relevant planning history of the site and details of responses to the application.

The Development Management Team Leader introduced the item, explaining that the application replaced a five storey building previously approved and would result in an increase in the quantity and quality of office floorspace on the site compared to the previous planning permission.  The six storey building was a mixed use scheme and would contribute towards providing new employment within the Borough, in accordance with the Core Strategy.

The reason for the application was to increase the amount of office floorspace in order to help secure investment funding for a speculative development.

Two small amendments had been made to the conditions and these had been circulated to the Committee in the update sheet.

The Chair invited Douglas Bond, Principal of Woolf Bond Planning, to speak to the Committee in support of the application.

Mr Bond reported that the alternative scheme, which had been worked up following various meetings with officers, offered a significant improvement in the quantity and quality of space provided in the new building.  Consistent with the Council’s Core Strategy, it was hoped that its character and appearance would provide a catalyst for new and improved office space in the Clarendon Road area.

The building’s strong design made a positive feature of the Gartlet Road/Clarendon Road junction, however would not impact on local residential properties.

The building complied with all technical requirements.

The Chair thanked Mr Bond for his comments and opened the debate to the Committee.

The Committee welcomed the new application, which was deemed a much improved design solution entirely consistent with the Council’s policies and aspirations for this important prime office area.

There were no concerns about the impact on local residents, including those located in the nearby Estcourt conservation area. 

Committee members expressed the hope that speedy progress would be made in the construction phase.

The Chair then moved the officer’s recommendation, with amendments to conditions 3 and 5 as set out in the update sheet.

RESOLVED –

That planning permission be granted subject to the following conditions:

Conditions

1.         The development to which this permission relates shall be begun within a period of three years commencing on the date of this permission.

2.         The development hereby permitted shall be carried out in accordance with the following approved drawings:-

9283 PL 500-010A, 500-011, 500-100, 500-101, 500-102, 500-103, 500-104, 500-105, 500-106, 500-200, 500-201.

3.         Construction of the development hereby permitted shall not take place before 8am or after 6pm Mondays to Fridays, and not at all on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays.

4.         No development shall commence until the scheme has been registered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme and a certificate of registration has been submitted to the Local Planning Authority. The construction shall be carried out in accordance with the requirements of this scheme.

5.         The development shall be constructed to BREEAM Very Good in accordance with the pre-assessment contained in the Energy and Sustainability Statement by Mecserve (Issue 1.0 – October 2015 – C5902).A post-completion certificate, to certify that the respective BREEAM Very Good standard has been achieved, shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority within 6 months of completion.

6.         No impact piling shall take place until a piling method statement (detailing the type of piling to be undertaken and the methodology by which such piling will be carried out, including measures to prevent and minimise the potential for damage to subsurface sewerage infrastructure, and the programme for the works) has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. Any piling shall only be undertaken in accordance with the approved piling method statement.

7.         No development shall commence until details of the existing and proposed ground levels and the finished ground floor levels of the building have been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The development shall only be constructed in accordance with the approved details.

8.         No development shall commence until details of the materials to be used for all the external finishes of the building, including all external walls, roofs, doors and windows, have been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The development shall be carried out only in accordance with the approved materials.

9.         No development shall commence until a hard landscaping scheme has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. This shall include details of all means of enclosure on the boundaries of the site and within the site. No part of the development shall be occupied until the approved hard landscaping works have been carried out.

10.      No development shall commence until a soft landscaping scheme has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The approved soft landscaping works shall be carried out not later than the first available planting and seeding season after completion of the development.  Any plants which within a period of five years die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased shall be replaced in the next planting season with others of similar size and species, or in accordance with details approved by the Local Planning Authority.

11.      No development shall commence until details of a sustainable surface water drainage scheme for the development have been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. No part of the development shall be occupied until the approved drainage scheme has been implemented in full.

12.      No development shall commence until a mains water services scheme for the development, including where necessary, the inclusion of fire hydrants to serve the development, has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The development shall only be carried out in accordance with the approved scheme.

13.      No plant or equipment shall be installed within the roof level open plant area until an acoustic assessment has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority which demonstrates that the sound pressure level from the plant area will be at least 10dB below the lowest LA90 (15 minute) noise level measured at 1m from the adjoining residential flats when all plant and equipment is operational. The assessment shall include appropriate noise mitigation measures. All plant and equipment shall be installed as approved and no plant or equipment shall be brought into operation until the approved mitigation measures have been installed.

14.      No part of the development shall be occupied until the following works within the site and the public highway have been completed in full, as shown in principle on drawing no. 65058-001 in Appendix C of the Transport Statement by Development Transport Planning (Project No. 65058, October 2015):

i)          new footpath on southern side of Gartlet Road from Clarendon Road to the boundary of the application site;

ii)         new servicing lay-by on southern side of Gartlet Road;

iii)        new vehicular access on Clarendon Road to serve office car parking;

iv)        re-siting of pedestrian crossing on Clarendon Road to the north of the existing crossing.

15.      No part of the development shall be occupied until the existing vehicular junctions on Clarendon Road have been closed off and the adjacent footways and kerbs reinstated.

16.       No part of the development shall be occupied until a management plan to ensure that the approved lay-by is only used for refuse collection, deliveries and loading/unloading has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority and the approved measures have been provided in full. These measures shall be retained as approved at all times.

17.      No part of the development shall be occupied until the 27 car parking spaces shown on the approved drawings (unless otherwise approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority) have been laid out and constructed in full. These spaces shall be retained at all times for the parking cars.

18.      No part of the development shall be occupied until the bin and cycle stores have been provided in accordance with the approved drawings (unless otherwise approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority). The stores shall be retained at all times for bin storage and cycle storage only and shall not be used for any other purpose.

Informatives

1.         In dealing with this application, Watford Borough Council has considered the proposal in a positive and proactive manner having regard to the policies of the development plan as well as paragraphs 186 and 187 of the National Planning Policy Framework and other material considerations, and in accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2010, as amended.