Land North of Dog and Gun PH, Front Street, Great Lumley

Planning Services COMMITTEE REPORT APPLICATION DETAILS APPLICATION NO: DM/14/03296/OUT Erection of 2no. apartment blocks, consisting of FULL APPLICATION DESCRIPTION: 13no. apartments NAME OF APPLICANT: Mr D & Mrs W Stephenson, Mr D & Mrs W Robison Land north of Dog and Gun PH ADDRESS: Front Street Great Lumley ELECTORAL DIVISION: Lumley Nick Graham Planning Officer CASE OFFICER: Telephone: 03000 264960 [email protected] DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE AND PROPOSALS The site 1. The application site is located within the village of Great Lumley. The site is situated on the corner of Front Street and Medway with the former acting as a main thoroughfare through Great Lumley. The site, along with much of the remainder of Front Street, forms the heart of the village. Other uses of properties along Front Street include residential dwellings, a church, a community centre, shops and social clubs. 2. Formerly the site of the Dog and Gun Public House and Bethel Chapel, the site has been vacant for a number of years following their demolition. Earlier proposals to redevelop the site have faulted and as a consequence the unsightly appearance of the site has been a major concern for local residents and the Parish Council. These concerns prompted a Divisional Member to put the site forward for inclusion in the Council's 'Blight Initiative' in 2011 and officers have engaged in lengthy negotiations to secure improvements to its appearance and ultimately its redevelopment. Progress has been hampered by an ongoing dispute regarding rights of access to the site and in an attempt to overcome this problem, the applicant was offered additional land by the Council's Assets Department to help facilitate the redevelopment of the site in recognition of the ongoing complaints regarding the site’s untidy appearance. After lengthy discussions agreement has been reached to sell the additional land subject to planning permission being obtained by the applicant. 3. Outline planning permission is sought for the erection of two apartment blocks, with eight and five apartments located in each of the blocks respectively. All matters have been reserved for subsequent approval but in order to give an indication of how the site would be redeveloped the application has been accompanied by indicative drawing NEBC/AD/BLOCK/01 demonstrating how the site may look. 4. The application is reported to the committee for determination by members as more than 10 dwellings are proposed and therefore it is a major application. PLANNING HISTORY 5. 2/07/00542/FUL – Erection of 10no. apartments and associated parking (Full Planning Application) – Approved 6. 2/11/00098/EOT – Extension of time application of 07/00542/FUL for the erection of 10no. apartments and associated parking (Extension of Time Application) – Undetermined PLANNING POLICY NATIONAL POLICY: 7. The Government has consolidated all planning policy statements, guidance notes and many circulars into a single policy statement, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), although the majority of supporting Annexes to the planning policy statements are retained. The overriding message is that new development that is sustainable should go ahead without delay. It defines the role of planning in achieving sustainable development under three topic headings – economic, social and environmental, each mutually dependant. 8. The presumption in favour of sustainable development set out in the NPPF requires local planning authorities to approach development management decisions positively, utilising twelve ‘core planning principles’. 9. In accordance with paragraph 215 of the National Planning Policy Framework, the weight to be attached to relevant saved local plan policy will depend upon the degree of consistency with the NPPF. The greater the consistency, the greater the weight. The relevance of this issue is discussed, where appropriate, in the assessment section of the report below. 10. The following elements of the NPPF are considered relevant to this proposal; 11. Part 1 – Building a Strong, Competitive Economy – reinforces the Government’s commitment to securing economic growth to create jobs and prosperity, ensuring the planning system supports this aim – ‘significant weight’ is to be placed on this aim. Planning policies should seek to address potential barriers to investment, setting out clear economic vision and strategy which proactively encourages sustainable economic growth, identifies sites and inward investment, and identifies priority areas for economic regeneration. There is no specific advice on decision making. 12. Part 6 – Delivering a wide choice of high quality homes – Housing applications should be considered in the context of a presumption in favour of sustainable development. Local Planning Authorities should seek to deliver a wide choice of high quality homes, widen opportunities for home ownership and create inclusive and mixed communities. Policies should be put in place to resist the inappropriate development of residential of residential gardens where development would cause harm to the local area. 13. Part 7 – Requiring Good Design – the Government attaches great importance to the design of the built environment, with good design a key aspect of sustainable development, indivisible from good planning. Planning policies and decisions must aim to ensure developments; function well and add to the overall quality of an area over the lifetime of the development, establish a strong sense of place, create and sustain an appropriate mix of uses, respond to local character and history, create safe and accessible environments and be visually attractive. NATIONAL PLANNING PRACTICE GUIDANCE: 14. The Government has recently cancelled a number of planning practice guidance notes, circulars and other guidance documents and replaced them with National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG). The NPPG both supports the core government guidance set out in the NPPF, and represents detailed advice, both technical and procedural, having material weight in its own right. The advice is set out in a number of topic headings and is subject to change to reflect the up to date advice of Ministers and Government. 15. Rural Housing – It is important to recognise the particular issues facing rural areas in terms of housing supply and affordability, and the role of housing in supporting the broader sustainability of villages and smaller settlements. A thriving rural community in a living, working countryside depends, in part, on retaining local services and community facilities such as schools, local shops, cultural venues, public houses and places of worship. Rural housing is essential to ensure viable use of these local facilities. LOCAL PLAN POLICY: 16. The following are the relevant ‘saved’ policies from the Chester-le-Street District Local Plan considered relevant, being given a degree of weight dependent on their compatibility with the advice set out in the NPPF. 17. Policy HP6 – Residential within Settlement Boundaries – identifies Great Lumley as a settlement where residential development will be allowed on non-allocated sites that are previously developed land and meet the criteria of Policy HP9. 18. Policy HP9 – Residential Design Criteria (General) – requires new development to; relate well to the surrounding area in character, setting, density and effect on amenity of adjacent property, to provide an attractive, efficient and safe residential environment, to provide adequate privacy and amenity, safe road access and retain existing landscape features. 19. Policy RL5 – Provision in New Developments – subject to dwelling sizes and types proposed, and the level of local provision, there is a requirement for at least 125m² children’s play space and 250m² informal open space to be provided within the site for every 1 hectare of land developed or redeveloped for residential purposes, adjusted pro-rata for smaller sites. 20. Policy T15 – Access and Safety provisions in design – Development should have safe access to a classified road, should not create high levels of traffic exceeding capacity, have good links to public transport, make provision for cyclists and service vehicles and have effective access for emergency vehicles RELEVANT EMERGING POLICY: The County Durham Plan 21. The emerging County Durham Plan was submitted in April 2014 ahead of Examination in Public. In accordance with paragraph 216 of the NPPF, decision- takers may give weight to relevant policies in emerging plans according to: the stage of the emerging plan; the extent to which there are unresolved objections to relevant policies; and, the degree of consistency of the policies in the emerging plan to the policies in the NPPF. Further, the Planning Practice Guidance explains that in limited circumstances permission can be justifiably refused on prematurity grounds: when considering substantial developments that may prejudice the plan-making process and when the plan is at an advanced stage of preparation (i.e. it has been submitted). The Plan gathers weight at is progresses through the Examination in Public. This exercise is underway, and the Plan is beginning to gain some material weight. To this end, the following policies contained in the Submission Draft are considered relevant to the determination of the application: 22. Policy 1 – Sustainable Development – sets out a presumption in favour of such through 18 subsections including directing economic growth to existing centres, protecting agricultural land, promoting inclusive and healthy communities,

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