Gareth Dwight: Planning Assistant – Planning Committee 20/02/2018 17/00669/FUL Mrs Rebecca Duggan Councillor Val Chapman Councillor Paul Fieldhouse BILBROOK Barnhurst Lane Pitches Adjacent Aldersley School Barnhurst Lane Pendeford Ancillary changing facilities to support existing FA standard sports pitches 1. SITE DESCRIPTION AND PLANNING HISTORY 1.1 Site Description 1.1.1 The application relates to a 10 hectare multi-pitch grass playing field which was granted consent in 2013, comprising 5 senior soccer pitches, 1 junior soccer pitch and 1 mini-soccer pitch (12/00863/FUL). 1.1.2 The site is situated off Barnhurst Lane in Bilbrook on the District boundary with Wolverhampton, within the West Midlands Green Belt. 1.1.3 There is residential development to the east, Aldersely High School to the south, and open grassland/woodland further to the west and north. 1.1.4 Approximately 60% of the sports pitches fall within the borough of South Staffordshire District Council, with the remaining 40% within Wolverhampton City Council. 1.1.5 The application site itself concerns the south-eastern corner of the playing fields, near the site entrance off Barnhurst Lane. The site falls wholly within the South Staffordshire District boundary. 1.2 Planning History 2015: Site entrance sign and site sponsorship sign, Advertisement Consent granted, 15/00400/ADV 2014: Removal of condition no1 of permission 12/00301/FUL, Approved, 14/00613/VAR 2013: Variation of condition 3 of permission 12/00863/FUL to amend operational hours, Approved, 13/00459/VAR 2012: New 10-hectare (25-acre) multi-pitch grass playing field plus vehicle parking, fencing and landscaping [major development], Approved, 12/00863/FUL 2012: Creation and provision of new vehicular access and turning area, construction of temporary haul road, transitional material storage area and site hut in association with proposed works to Aldersley High School, Approved, 12/00301/FUL Gareth Dwight: Planning Assistant – Planning Committee 20/02/2018 2. APPLICATION DETAILS 2.1 Pre-application advice None. 2.2 The Proposal 2.2.1 This application proposes the erection of an ancillary changing room building to serve the existing Football Association (FA) standard sports pitches at Barnhurst Lane. 2.2.2 The proposed building would be located at the south-eastern end of the playing fields, directly adjacent to the site entrance. 2.2.3 The proposal would have a rectangular footprint measuring 26m wide x 14.6m deep (380 sq.m). A dual-pitched roof would measure 3m high to the eaves and 4.6m to the ridge. 2.2.4 An existing footpath around the playing field perimeter would be modified to accommodate the siting of the proposed building. 2.2.5 New tree planting provided as part of the original re-development of the site (12/00863/FUL) would be re-positioned to provide screening along Barnhurst Lane. 2.3 Applicant's Submission The application has been supported by the following documents:- - Initial Ecological Assessment - Combined Planning, Design & Access Statement - Football Foundation Changing Accommodation Technical Guidance Note - Additional Supporting Statement (received 26/10/17) The Combined Planning, Design and Access Statement provides the following (in summary):- -The planning application seeks full planning consent for development comprising the construction of approximately 400sqm of ancillary space to support existing playing pitches. -This includes provision for 6. No. changing rooms / showers, officials changing / showers and toilet facilities; inclusive of accessible changing. -Existing running / cycling track is to be modified to allow for the discreet positioning of the building adjacent existing tree cover. -The existing playing pitch development was funded through the Football Foundation, and due to the origin of this funding, the plans submitted with this Gareth Dwight: Planning Assistant – Planning Committee 20/02/2018 application have been developed using FA guidelines. 6 no. changing rooms are required to provide segregated changing for six teams using the 3 Senior pitches. -Officials accommodation is to be provided in addition to these changing rooms as recommended by the FA. Should Planning Approval be granted, it is the Clients intention to let the Contract through the FA Framework. The additional supporting statement received 26/10/17 also provides the following:- -An extended negotiation took place with the school to extend their changing rooms to include the 6 additional changing rooms required to meet the Football Association requirements for Barnhurst pitches. The current school changing rooms could not accommodate any additional use as these were fully booked for the pitches that are on the school site. An agreement over the licence could not be reached and so a decision was made to build the changing rooms on Barnhurst Lane. This decision would allow much better access to the changing facilities are they are available on the same site that the football games will be played. -Expected use for each changing room would be 2 -3 games per day (weekends) and infrequent use of an evening for week day matches. -The football pitches are not floodlit so the site would have limited use of an evening due to the timings of the football season and the hours of daylight. Also, in order to maintain the football pitches to the quality outlined in the Football Foundation award, only 3 full games per week can be played on each pitch. -Current adult use of the site is limited as adult teams must have changing rooms in order to play within a football league and this will not improve unless the changing rooms are available to accommodate them. The site currently has several youth teams with regular bookings and we will also investigate additional use of the changing rooms by advertising to schools/ school league organisers. A site that is able to accommodate both youth/ junior and adult teams will attract more teams and make Barnhurst a thriving football facility. -As part of the Football Foundation award, we are required to deliver a football development plan which includes a target for adult football league games. This will be updated once the changing rooms are confirmed. -It is important to reference the South Staffordshire Playing Pitch Strategy which outlines that poor changing facilities are a common problem across the district and recommends that a key priority is investing in changing room facility improvement. The report states 'There are qualitative deficiencies about adequate changing and ancillary facilities with over half of all community accessible pitches not served by good quality provision' and 'Use the study findings to help prioritise investment in ancillary facilities - improvements should be focused on the north and central analysis areas'. Barnhurst Lane pitches lie within the Central analysis area (as Gareth Dwight: Planning Assistant – Planning Committee 20/02/2018 although they are owned by the City of Wolverhampton, they fall within South Staffs) and will help South Staffs respond to this recommendation and should be referenced in any future update of the PPS. 2.4 Amended Plans 12/09/17: Minor discrepancies were corrected. 26/10/17 & 10/01/18: The internal layout of the proposal was amended to Address Sport England's comments (of 29/09/17). The height of the building was also reduced from 5.1m to 4.6m. 05/02/18: Additional annotation was provided on the proposed floor plans, to address Sport England's latest comments (of 19/01/18). 3. POLICY CONTEXT 3.1 The site is located within:- - The West Midlands Green Belt. - A Biological Alert Site 3.2 Core Strategy Core Policy 1: The Spatial Strategy Policy GB1: Development in the Green Belt Core Policy 2: Protecting and Enhancing the Natural and Historic Environment Policy EQ1: Protecting, Expanding and Enhancing Natural Assets Core Policy 3: Sustainable Development and Climate Change Policy EQ9: Protecting Residential Amenity Core Policy 4: Promoting High Quality Design Policy EQ11: Wider Design Considerations Core Policy 11: Sustainable Transport Policy EV12: Parking Provision Core Policy 14: Open Space, Sport and Recreation Policy HWB1: Protection of Open Space, Sport and Recreation Facilities 3.3 Adopted local guidance Green Belt and Open Countryside Supplementary Planning Document [SPD] 3.4 National Planning Policy Framework 2012 [NPPF] Chapter 9: Protecting Green Belt land 3.5 Other relevant policy/guidance South Staffordshire Playing Pitch Assessment (October 2007) Wolverhampton Playing Pitch Strategy (January 2012) 4. CONSULTATION RESPONSES 4.1 Comments received Gareth Dwight: Planning Assistant – Planning Committee 20/02/2018 Ward Councillors: No comments received. Bilbrook Parish Council (received 07/09/17): Bilbrook Parish Council has no objections on the condition that all construction traffic is to be parked on site and not on the Highway. Tree Officer (received 05/02/18): All of the trees in the area of the proposed building appear to be recently planted (within last 3 or so years) and so should be fairly easy to transplant and relocate as suggested on the plans. I have no objection to the application and consider that no tree or landscape related conditions are necessary. Environmental Health Officer (received 01/09/17): We have no comment to make in respect of this application. Sport England (received 29/09/17): It is understood that the proposal prejudices the use, or leads to the loss of use, of land being used as a playing field or has been used as a playing field in the last five years, as defined in The