Agenda Item 5A
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Page 15 Agenda Item 5a 8 week date Application No. Date of meeting Report No. 09.03.2010 GR/2010/0020 14 April 2010 Land at Springhead, Ebbsfleet, between A2 and Springhead Park, Northfleet, Kent. Construction of a landmark sculpture in the form of a White Horse. Ebbsfleet Landmark Project Ltd & Ebbsfleet Investment (GP) Ltd Recommendation: Permission be granted subject to conditions 1. Description of the Site and Surroundings The Ebbsfleet Site The original Ebbsfleet outline planning application which straddles the boundary of both Gravesham and Dartford Boroughs extends to some 152 hectares (375 acres) and is centred around the new International and Domestic Passenger Station at Ebbsfleet, from which Eurostar currently operates a high speed passenger train service linking the UK with Paris, Lille and Brussels. It is a key site in the strategic development and regeneration of the Kent Thames Gateway. The Ebbsfleet site in broad terms is bounded by the A2 in the south, the North Kent railway line to the north, Southfleet Road and Swanscombe to the west and Springhead Road to the east. The site has been planned on the basis of four quarters – Springhead ( Springhead Park ) and Northfleet Rise ( Portland ) which are within Gravesham and Station Quarter South ( Cressfield ) and Station Quarter North ( Ebbsfleet ) in Dartford Borough. The development is closely linked with the planned development of the area of land to the west of the Ebbsfleet station and to the east of the Bluewater shopping centre formerly known as Eastern Quarry. This is a clay and chalk quarry operated by Lafarge Cement Company which has now been exhausted and for which outline planning permission was granted in November 2007 by Dartford Borough Council (reference DA/03/01134) for 6,250 dwellings and an additional 231,000m² of mixed use floorspace including business premises, community, leisure and retail uses and where there has been subsequent approval for a site wide master plan and an area master plan for one of the five “villages”. Central to the development will be a dedicated bus route ( Fastrack ), reducing reliance on the private car, which will provide a fast and convenient public transport link between Dartford and Gravesend town centres. In December 2009 domestic train services began operating between Ebbsfleet station and St Pancras London with a journey time of 17 minutes. Page 16 The Ebbsfleet site and Eastern Quarry together are known as the Ebbsfleet Valley. Overall the Ebbsfleet Valley will deliver 1,659,550m² (17.8m sq ft ) of development with 10,000 new homes, 6m sq ft of commercial development, 3m sq ft of retail, leisure and community uses on 420 hectares (1035 acres) of land, 40 per cent of which will be open spaces and parkland (158 hectares). Land Securities who own the Ebbsfleet Valley site in conjunction with Lafarge propose to build out the whole development over a 25 year time span on a phased basis with joint venture partners. Springhead Quarter The Springhead Quarter comprises an area of 27.5 hectares. It lies immediately west of Springhead Road, Northfleet and is bounded by the Ebbsfleet stream and Channel Tunnel Rail Link (High Speed 1) to the west, the Northfleet sewage works and Springhead Enterprise Park to the north and the former line of the now disused Gravesend West railway line (but actually within the site of the Springhead Quarter) and the Sainsbury’s Pepper Hill store to the south. The majority of the land was fairly level agricultural land farmland although the north- west part of the site falls down from the Springhead Enterprise Park and the former allotments site towards the Ebbsfleet stream and the west boundary also has a steep slope towards the Ebbsfleet stream now further accentuated by the cutting as a result of the CTRL. The former Gravesend West railway line is also for the most part in a deep cutting. The Springhead Quarter also included the site of the former Meadow Road prefabricated dwellings long since demolished off Springhead Road. The Springhead Quarter is crossed by public footpaths and there are existing National Grid high voltage power lines crossing the site in the south west corner of the site and lower voltage lines in the north-west. A further set of reserve power lines running north-south have been removed. Existing two storey dwellings in Springhead Road adjoin the site to the east. Construction has commenced on the first phase of residential development on an area of 7.2 hectares and which forms a gateway into the Quarter. The development under construction in Phase 1 is for 388 residential units and associated car parking spaces together with a number of small open spaces as well as a local park (referred to as Central Park and now known as Penn Green Park) of one hectare in area. Currently there are 120 residential units that are occupied and approx. a further 90 units completed or under construction. No detailed planning permission has been applied for the later phases of the development at Springhead but the outline planning permission and subsequent master planning allows for up to 600 residential units to be built on the Springhead Quarter at Ebbsfleet as well as commercial development (32,000m²) and community facilities including a school, health facility, place of worship, leisure centre and community centre. The master plan also indicates the provision of a linear park and potential allotments on the western side of the Quarter. No work has yet commenced on the provision of the linear park which could take 5-7 years to complete. Page 17 The Specific Application Site This specific application site relates to an area of approx 0.36 hectares of undeveloped land on elevated ground being part of the prominent escarpment in the southern and western edges of the Springhead Quarter of the Ebbsfleet development overlooking the A2 trunk road and close to the National Grid overhead electricity line that runs through the southern part of the Quarter. The site would sit within the proposed linear park for the Springhead Quarter of the Ebbsfleet development and is on a plateau area 31 metres above ordnance datum. The profile of the Ebbsfleet river valley in this location comprises a steep cliff and plateau and the natural topography has been significantly changed due to farming activity but more recently by the Channel Tunnel Rail Link engineering works. An electricity pylon within the specific application site was relocated due to the CTRL works some 60 metres to the north west and the site was used as a construction site for spoil storage during the building of the railway line. The application site is about 60 metres from the Northfleet East National Grid sub station site that adjoins Springhead to the south east. It is approx. 90 metres from the line of the High Speed 1 railway (CTRL) which, at this point, is within a cutting before it enters a tunnel to go under the A2 trunk road. The A2 trunk road is about 160 metres to the south of the application site and is about 20 metres lower than the application site at its nearest point. The nearest dwelling is at Springhead Nurseries (Springhead House) which is about 160 metres from the application site and in a significantly lower position. Proposed dwellings on phase 2 of Springhead Park would be about 80 metres from the application site. The nearest dwellings in both Springhead Road and the Pepper Hill estate (Fleet Road) are about 350 metres from the application site. A public footpath (NU 16) runs through the application site. 2. Planning History of the Site and Surroundings The Outline Planning Application The Ebbsfleet planning application was originally submitted by Blue Circle Properties Ltd in January 1996 to both this Council and Dartford Borough Council (GBC reference GR/96/35 and Dartford reference DA/96/47). That application was for outline planning permission on the 152 hectare site with all matters reserved for detailed planning approval and proposed a development for a maximum of 789,550m 2 (approx. 8.5 million square feet) of mixed use development with quantities for the land uses expressed in the following ranges: Page 18 • up to approx. 493,700m 2 of employment uses (use Class B1 – offices, research and development and light industrial) • up to approx. 310,420m 2 of residential development (3,200 dwellings - subsequently increased to 3,384 by reason of higher quantities agreed within the Dartford Quarters) • up to approx. 310,420m 2 of supporting uses (including schools, community facilities, local shops) and • up to 163,740m 2 of core space development (including hotels, leisure, entertainment and supporting retail) The key elements of the development are: • creation of a new centre of development of a ‘critical mass’ around a new transport focus i.e. Channel Tunnel Rail Link and Ebbsfleet Station • mixed use • higher density than surrounding development • linkage of existing communities • encouragement of public transport and reducing reliance on the private motor car • sustainable form of development The development is planned for a 20-25 year time span. The application indicated that for the Springhead Quarter (27.5 hectares) the development would be for predominantly residential with a neighbourhood centre and shops and some employment use, with development more akin to suburban areas of Gravesend. The application was supported initially by a number of documents and statements including Environmental, Urban Design Transport and Community Development statements. Further documents were subsequently submitted including environmental strategies, illustrative master plan, retail and travel impact assessments, and illustrative floorspace scenarios. Gravesham Councillors received a number of initial reports and participated in seminars and a study tour of the Ebbsfleet site before receiving a full first report at a special meeting of the Environmental Services Committee on 16 December 1997 which drew together all the issues and analysed and evaluated the proposals.