Issue - meetings

Due to public interest, the Chair moved items 6 and 7 forward on the agenda.

Sunil Vidhani spoke on behalf of local residents who were in objection to the application.

Edward Hammond, the applicant, spoke in support of the application.

The Principal Planning Officer updated members in relation to a number of late items that had been received since the publication of the agenda which included a letter of objection noting that there had been objections to the use on noise grounds prior the festival events held in September 2022 and one new letter of support, raising no new considerations.

He added that pages 42-43 of the committee report outlined changes to the application with further representation received from the agent confirming the Maize spectator stand would be removed from Nov to June, Portaloos would only be on site between Aug and Oct, the cinema pallet stage will only be on site between May-Oct, that an advert stand and solar panels had been removed. 

He added that the letter also highlighted what they considered to be very special circumstances to allow the development, which were already covered in the committee report and that amended plans had also been submitted to clarify what structures were to be removed.  

The Principal Planning Officer then introduced the report.

He concluded that the additional information did not change the officer recommendation and the application was recommended for refusal.

RESOLVED:

To Refuse Planning Permission for the following reason:

In the opinion of the Local Planning Authority although the principle of the proposed use of the site for outdoor activities would fall within an exception of development identified in the NPPF as being appropriate development in the Green Belt the ancillary structures and paraphernalia associated with the various uses on the site together with the access track and car parking area would fail to preserve the openness of the Green Belt and would conflict with the purposes of including land within it.. There would be glimpsed views into the site of the parking areas the impact of which would be further intensified by the urbanisation of parked vehicles and any associated infrastructure such as structures, lighting and signage. All these factors result in harm to openness and therefore should not be approved unless very special circumstances exist.

Very special circumstances will not exist unless the identified harm can be clearly outweighed by other considerations. It is considered that the very special circumstances of social, economic, environmental, ecological and community benefits would not outweigh the harm in this instance. Taking into account the above matters, the proposal is considered to be contrary to Section 13 of the NPPF (2021).

Notes to applicant

Planning Statement - There are fundamental Green Belt policy objections to the proposal and despite protracted discussions with the applicant for planning permission, it has not been possible to overcome these concerns.