Agenda item

22/00506/FULM - 125-133 The Parade, High Street, Watford, WD17 1NA

        The Strategic Applications Manager delivered the report and gave a brief history of the application.

The Chair then invited Mr Marks to address the committee. 

Mr Marks spoke in opposition of the plans, highlighting the nightclub’s history. He believed that the opinions given in the early hours of the morning by club goers should be given serious consideration as they were the affected demographic.  He wanted to add a fourth point in relation to planning policy, national policy framework and planning practice guidance paragraph 86, highlighting the importance of the role of the town centre in a community and supporting growth, management and adaptation with paragraph 93 providing for the protection of social and recreational facilities.  He went on to give details of Watford and his personal long history with nightclubs, pointing out Watford had the second oldest club in the country. They were now in recovery from COVID, it was a relevant business, with over 100 employees and central to the Watford night time economy.  In his opinion Watford was in danger of becoming a small and insignificant town in terms of its night economy; the club was integral to the night economy.

The Chair thanked Mr Marks for his contribution and invited the speaker in support of the application to speak.

Mr Minnis spoke in favour of the development.  He began by giving a history of the business and the project and introduced himself as the design lead. He stated that they had reviewed and listened to feedback since the start of the project and had worked with the council and the project had been broadly welcomed and supported. 

He pointed out that the proposed movement of block B and the tree felling was in response to a request from council officers.   

Following the planning application in April the applicant worked in consultation with council officers, but an agreement could not be reached.  The applicant had expressed willingness to provide new plans to address all the issues taking into account the officer’s recommendations. 

Mr Minnis sought to defer the application to allow time to work with officers on a mutually agreeable solution. 

The Chair thanked Mr Minnis, and reminded the committee that preserving the nightclub could not be a consideration in the decision by this committee.  He then invited the Strategic Application Manager to respond to comments from the speakers.

The Strategic Application Manager appreciated the comments from Mr Marks and noted the many objections received in respect of retaining the nightclub. She did, however, remind the committee that the planning process could not determine who occupied premises.  It was identified that, in respect of the land use, various uses were suitable in the town centre to provide commercial, social and economic functions and there was no local or national planning policy that would specifically seek the retention of the nightclub use at this site. The Strategic Applications Manager also added that the site has been allocated in the emerging Local Plan for mixed use redevelopment. This emerging plan was robustly scrutinised by an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State under hearings held in January 2022 and the Inspector had not raised any objection in respect of the site allocation.

In relation to Mr Minnis’ comments, she acknowledged that whilst improvements had been made they still failed to tackle the issues that had been raised through the lengthy pre-application process. The amendments foreseen to be required to address these issues would not be minor and would not be appropriate to undertake at this late stage. The Strategic Application Manager, added that the council would be willing to work in partnership with the applicant on a revised scheme under further pre-application advice prior to a resubmission.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Application Manager and invited the committee to comment.

The majority of the committee made comments.  Overall they raised issues around the poor appearance of Block B of the development, the unwelcome loss of trees, local impact on neighbouring properties and lack of affordable housing. Disappointment was raised in respect of the poor quality of the homes proposed, noting that lack of suitable amenity space, light and outlook would be harmful to the health and wellbeing of future occupiers. They also noted a decision must be made based on the current plans not any plans submitted in the future. 

The committee felt that the site visit allowed them to visualise the issues; some councillors expressed recent veiled threats from the developers. 

The Chair concluded by stating that he was also disappointed in the proposed plan and invited the committee to vote on the officer’s recommendation.

RESOLVED –

On being put to the committee the application was REFUSED.