Issue - meetings

The Principal Planning Officer (AC) delivered his report and the committee noted that an update sheet had been provided to them and also published on the council’s website.   

            The Chair then invited Mr Foster address the committee.  He was critical of the officer’s recommendation to approve the application, citing the Planning Inspector’s comments that the first application was unsuitable for this area.  Mr Foster asserted that the application before the committee was not materially different and he voiced his opinion that the officer was wrong then and was wrong now.  Mr Foster opined that the application had not gone far enough to reduce the harm as mentioned in the Planning Inspector’s report; specifically, the maximum height of the proposed scheme was emphasised before and has not been reduced in the current application. 

            He asserted that the height of the scheme on the St Albans Road side was just one storey less than the original proposal and other parts of the scheme were one, two or three storeys higher than anything nearby. 

            Mr Foster moved on to the parking and stated that the visualisations on the report did not reflect the true picture of what the parking would be like and despite all the landscaping, the appearance would be that of a car park.  He noted that the officer’s report described the situation as “acceptable”, but his opinion was that it was not acceptable and was overdevelopment. 

            The lack of affordable housing was poor considering the need for this within Watford. 

            He concluded by asking the committee to protect the residents from an oversized flatted development and to refuse the application. 

The Chair thanked Mr Foster and invited Mr Mark Jackson, the applicant’s agent to address the committee. 

Mr Jackson opened by pointing out that this was a brownfield development and noted that the previous scheme had been rejected.  This rejection had been addressed by engaging a new architect to take a fresh view and the scheme had been designed with not only the current local plan, but also the emerging local plan in mind. 

He cited various favourable statistics, such as the 127 new homes and generation of £2.6million through CIL to be secured through the development. 

The scheme had noted the feedback from local residents and the scale, massing and height had been reduced over the site, whilst preserving a link to the existing locally listed building with subtle styling cues. 

This development was worthy of support boasting improved links to Garston Park.  Watford Borough Council’s declaration of a climate emergency was also addressed by the scheme, with a range of measures to mitigate and reduce the carbon footprint, going beyond the current policy.  The car parking levels were below the current maximums within the policy and an extensive cycling infrastructure was included.  There was also a car club provision and extensive facilities for electric vehicles. 

Mr Jackson admitted that all this change and improvement had affected the viability of the scheme, with no on-site or off-site contribution, but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20