Case Officer: Tony Wallace File No: CHE/14/00269/FUL Tel. No: 345787 Plot No: 2/1292 Date: 28th October 2013 ITEM 3 FAMILY TRAVELLER SITE WITH 2 PITCHES AND ASSOCIATED FACILITIES AT GARAGE SITE, HADY LANE, CHESTERFIELD. S41 0DE for MR JAMES CASH Local Plan: Open Countryside and Other Open Land Ward: St Leonards 1.0 CONSULTATIONS Ward Members No representations received Coal Authority No objection Community Safety Officer No objection Derbyshire Constabulary No comments received Derbyshire County Council No objection Waste Management Derbyshire County Council No objection Public Rights of Way Team Derbyshire County Council No comments received Legal Services Derbyshire County Council Planning Services No comments received Derbyshire Wildlife Trust No objection Drainage Services No objection Environment Agency No objection Environmental Services (CBC) No objection 38 Estates (CBC) No specific comments made on the proposal Housing (CBC) No objection Leisure Services No specific comments made on the proposal Private Sector Housing (CBC) No comments received DCC Highways No objection Severn Trent Water No comments received Spatial Planning Team (CBC) No objection Tree Officer (CBC) No objection Yorkshire Water No objection Neighbours/Site Notice/Publicity In totality: 103 letters and emails objecting to the development and 1 letter of comment. 1.1 Publicity has been by ‘neighbour’ letters, site notices and in the local press. The publicity has been carried out under article 13 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2010, the application being for a ‘minor’ development. The site address was given incorrectly and so the initial publicity was incorrect. Hence a second round of publicity by letters and site notices was carried out. The publicity included reference to the development affecting a public right of way on the basis of pre-empting designation of the proposed footpath near to the site as a public right of way. The statutory period of consultation and publicity has expired. 2.0 SITE LOCATION 2.1 The site is approximately 1.3km to the east of Chesterfield Town Centre within the ward of St Leonards, within a wider area of ‘open land’ which is to a greater degree surrounded by existing development, primarily residential in use. This existing residential development consists of ‘Hady’ to the east and north, and ‘Spital’ to the south and west. The site is approximately 50m to the west of Hady Lane an unclassified highway 39 and minor road from which the site has an existing vehicular access. Hady Lane joins the classified Hady Hill (A632) 500m to the north and Hady Hill links Chesterfield Town Centre to the settlement of Calow and beyond. Hady Hill also serves Chesterfield Royal Hospital which is approximately 1.0km to the north of the site. To the south east, Hady Lane joins Calow Lane, a classified highway linking Calow and Hasland. 3.0 SITE DESCRIPTION 3.1 The application site is approximately 1500sqm in area and sits within a wider area of land at least 25ha in area, designated in the Replacement Chesterfield Borough Local Plan (2006) as a mixture of ‘Open Countryside and Other Open Land’, sports pitches and playing fields and wildlife sites. The playing fields are to the north of the site and the wildlife area, a wood to the south west. This wider area of land contains predominantly sports pitches, woods, hedgerows, shrubs and grassed fields, itself being to a greater degree surrounded by existing residential development. The ‘open’ land ‘connects’ to allotments and Spital Cemetery to the north west and (bar crossing Spital Lane) to the open land adjoining Spital Brook to the south east. 3.2 The open land is criss-crossed by informal paths, and a designated public right of way runs across the northern edge of the sports pitches approximately 170m to the north of the site (No.118). To the south is designated route 139 running along the former railway line route from Hady Hill to Spital to the west. A ‘proposed’ public right of way links the two routes referred to above and which runs through land to the west of the application site (No.129). 3.3 Whilst the wider area has designations as ‘Open Countryside and Other Open Land’, Sports Pitches and Playing Fields (in the Regulation 22 (1) (b) Submission Policies Map), the designations also cover land containing the following elements of development: Hady Primary School (approximately 310m to the north of the site); A row of three large detached dwellings (approximately 130m to the south east of the site); A landfill gas burner/flare (approximately 280m to the east of the site (a significant part of the open land being a former landfill site); A sports pavilion building (approximately 80m to the north east of the site); 40 A disused and overgrown garage court consisting of hard standing and kerbing (the application site) A disused and overgrown parking court to the west of the application site. An area of parking adjacent to a vehicular access which serves the ‘open land’. A Local Wildlife Area (as identified in the Council’s Green Infrastructure Study) and deciduous woodland. 3.4 There is an existing vehicular access to the wider open land which is situated approximately 50m to the east of the site. It meets Hady Lane at an unmarked ‘T-junction’ and provides access to the open land, sports pavilion and recycling area. It is also used to provide access to the now disused garage court (application site), the disused parking area and the applicants own land to the west. A section of this access is owned by the Derbyshire County Council and leased to the Chesterfield Borough Council. It is a section of around 17m in length running from the gated access into the unauthorised traveller site to the west of the application site towards Hady Lane. At least half of this section is within the red edged line of the application site. The remainder of the application site is on land owned by the Chesterfield Borough Council. 3.5 The site is a rectangular plot of land enclosed to a degree by a combination of vegetation and fencing. The northern boundary is unenclosed. The eastern boundary of the site is enclosed to a degree mainly by what appears to be Hawthorn trees to an estimated height of at least 3.0m, with undergrowth and the remnants of a fence. The southern boundary enclosure is similar but with a post and rail fence in a lesser state of disrepair albeit there not being a complete enclosure of land, a track being evident through the site and western perimeter. The western boundary is a mixture of vegetation and post and rail fence beyond which is the former parking court and the applicant’s existing unauthorised development (private family traveller site). The application site has hard surfacing visible, but also extensive areas of ground covered by vegetation. The adjacent section of land corresponds to a car park ‘extension’ which was provided at the time of the nearby pavilion on the playing field to the north. This land has a track running through it passing from the north boundary through the south boundary. The division between the former garage site and the parking court appears to approximate to the edge of a former landfill site (which ceased operation in 1979) which stretches to the west and sits under a significant part of the wider open land. The site contains several trees, 41 mainly self-set Goats Willow and also some Ash trees. A fruit tree is also present as well as a dead tree on the east boundary. 3.6 The site would not fall within the definition of previously developed land in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) given that vegetation now covers the majority of hard surfacing on the site. 4.0 SITE HISTORY 4.1 The following ‘planning’ history of the site is relevant to the consideration of the proposal: CHE/13/00089/FUL Family traveller site with two pitches and associated facilities. WITHDRAWN. CHE/882/465 Renewal of Garage Site Consent (the final permanent permission in a series of temporary permissions). GRANTED 16.11.1982 4.2 The following ‘planning’ history of adjoining and nearby sites is relevant to the consideration of the proposal: CHE/12/00052/COU Family traveller site with 2 pitches and associated facilities. REFUSED PERMISSION 15.05.2012. The decision was made at Planning Committee on the 14th May 2012 for the following reasons: 1. In the opinion of the Local Planning Authority it is considered that insufficient information has been submitted to demonstrate that the site can be adequately serviced with sewerage and therefore to assess the development against saved policies HSN8 (b) and EVR12 of the Replacement Chesterfield Borough Local Plan.. 2. A land contamination assessment has not been carried out by any party in respect of the development applied for and it is considered by the Local Planning Authority that one is necessary to be able to determine the suitability or otherwise of the location for the development applied for and to assess it against saved policies EVR15 and EVR23 of the Replacement Chesterfield Borough Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework 42 CHE/11/00405/FUL Use of field for paddocks and erection of storage timber sheds resubmission of CHE/10/00464/FUL. GRANTED 10.08.2011 CHE/10/00464/FUL Use of field for paddocks and erection of storage sheds to hold horse feeds and riding equipment , paddock area and sheds to be used for ponies. REFUSED 18.10.2010 CHE/07/00941/FUL Land Adjacent To Farm Cottage 148 Hady Lane Chesterfield Derbyshire.