Tomorrow Night’s Development Control Meeting

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) we have the last District Council meeting of the yaer dealing with planning applications. There’s just two to consider, both in Rayleigh:

07/00932/FUL
Construct Two Detached and Two Semi-Detached Three Storey Houses With Garages and Access Land West Of Boston Avenue Cheapside West Rayleigh

08/00795/OUT
Demolish Existing Bungalows and Construct Two Storey Building Comprising 11 No. Two Bedroomed and 3 No. One Bedroomed Flats With Access Onto Highfield Crescent and Parking and Amenity Areas.
Site Of 9 And 11 Bull Lane Rayleigh

As you can tell by the reference number, the first one dates back to last year. To quote the report:

This application was deferred at the meeting of the Development Control Committee held on 22 November 2007 following the receipt of revised plans just before that meeting and requiring a fresh round of notification with neighbours to the site before Members would be in a position to determine the application. The applicant also sought to address issues raised relating to the objections made by the Environment Agency concerning flood risk and other objections raised by the Council?s arboriculturalist concerning the absence of information relating to the effect of the development upon existing preserved trees on the site.

In April this year the applicant submitted a Flood Risk Assessment, which was then revised in August this year as a result of discussions with the Environment Agency.

In May this year the applicant submitted an arboricultural assessment in support of the application, which has been the subject of consultation with the Council?s arboriculturalist. Also submitted in May were revised layout plans to be consistent with both arboricultural and flood risk details.

Neighbours were finally notified on the confirmed final layout in September this year once it was clear that no further changes would arise as a result of discussions with the Environment Agency.

It’s a difficult location to describe:

This application is to a site at the western end of Cheapside West at the junction made with Boston Avenue. The site is irregular in shape, having a narrow frontage of 9m width onto Cheapside West, which extends along the rear boundary fences to dwellings fronting Grosvenor Road, but widens out to a broadly rectangular shaped piece of land some 37m wide and 68m in length. The site has an approximate area of 0.358ha (0.885 acres).
1.6
Through the wider part of the site runs an open water course. The middle part of the site is closely mown and has an appearance of a domestic garden. The outer margins of the land have a relatively dense hedge and tree margin either side of the water course. Those tree margins are part of an Area Tree Preservation Order 01/82, which extends over a large area, including part of the more recent development to the north of the site.

There have been 7 letters of objection to the current scheme.

The second application has prompted a lot of opposition from residents. To quote the report again:

114 letters of objection have been received from the occupiers of surrounding dwellings in Bull Lane, Highfield Crescent, Hockley Road, Rectory Garth, Derwent Avenue and Keswick Close.

… and they have commissioned their own consultants report….