DEVELOPMENT CONTROL AND REGULATORY BOARD 14 TH AUGUST 2014 REPORT OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE COUNTY MATTER PART A – SUMMARY REPORT APP.NO. & DATE: (i) 2013/0282/03 (2013/VOCM/0038/LCC) – 25 th February 2013 (ii) 2013/1857/03 (2013/VOCM/0366/LCC) – 2nd December 2013 PROPOSAL: (i) Variation of condition no.1 of planning permission no. 2010/0879/03 to allow additional use of vehicular access in connection with a thermal aerobic digester (ii) Variation of condition no. 1 of planning permission no. 2010/0879/03 to allow additional use of vehicular access in connection with a renewable energy generation facility LOCATION: Pebble Hall Farm, Theddingworth, Lutterworth (Harborough District) APPLICANT: (i) Welland Waste Management Ltd (ii) Carbonarius Ltd MAIN ISSUES: Traffic generation and highway safety RECOMMENDATION: PERMIT subject to 6 conditions as set out in the appendix to the main report. Circulation Under the Local Issues Alert Procedure Mr. B. L. Pain CC Officer to Contact Jennifer Saunders Tel. 0116 3057054 Email: [email protected] 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued PART B – MAIN REPORT Background and Location of Proposed Development 1. Pebble Hall Farm is located in an area of open countryside to the south-west of the village of Theddingworth, on the southern side of the A4304 and some 1.8km east of Husbands Bosworth village. The operational site is just across the County boundary in Northamptonshire (Daventry District). It is set back approximately 500m from the site access, which is situated within Leicestershire. The County boundary follows the route of the River Welland, between the A4304 and the operational site. 2. Pebble Hall Farm has a complex planning history, with permissions granted by Leicestershire County Council (LCC) and Northamptonshire (NCC). Table 1 below summarises those permissions dealt with by LCC, which deal with the site access: Table 1: Relevant planning history for applications at Pebble Hall Farm Planning permission number Development type 2003/0879/03* Application for composting (DA/03/725C)** 2005/1081/03 Use of vehicular access in connection (DA/05/773C) with extension to existing green waste composting site 2008/0889/03 Use of access in connection with (08-00053-WAS) renewable energy generation facility (pyrolysis plant) 2010/0879/03 Use of access in connection with carpet (10-00038-WAS) recycling activities * refers to the Leicestershire County Council permission number relating to the use of the access ** refers to the Northamptonshire County Council permission number relating to the development itself 3. All of the above consents granted by LCC have sought to restrict the overall number of vehicle movements using the site access onto the A4304. However, in light of the different activities taking place on site and the difficulties of controlling these individually, the Highway Authority required the applicant to sign a Section 106 Unilateral Undertaking (S106). This was signed in January 2011 and places the following restrictions on the use of the site access: DC&REG. BOARD 14/08/2014 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued DC&REG. BOARD 14/08/2014 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued Description of Proposals 4. Welland Waste Management Ltd applied to Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) in January 2014 for planning permission for a change of use and extension to a building currently used as a grain store (13/00117/WASFUL). The change of use would involve food waste processing by means of thermal aerobic digestion to produce agricultural granules. 5. Carbonarius Ltd applied to NCC in October 2013 for the erection of a replacement renewable energy generation building (REGF) (13/00098/WASFUL), which would process approximately 72,000 tonnes per annum of wood waste and use a gasification process to produce renewable heat and electricity. Whilst planning permission was granted in 2008 by NCC (08/00053/WAS) for a renewable energy facility, the applicant sought to make a number of changes: • A larger building located in the south-west corner of the Pebble Hall complex • A 30m stack • Gasification process rather than pyrolysis • An additional 32,000 tonnes of wood waste inputs. 6. Both planning applications submitted to LCC seek to vary condition 1 of permission no. 2010/0879/03, which ties the use of the vehicular access to permissions granted by NCC for the Pebble Hall Farm site and to previous permissions granted by LCC. The applicants propose the following rewording of condition no.1: This permission relates only to the use of the vehicular access to Pebble Hall Farm in connection with those operations permitted by planning permissions DA/03/725C; DA/05/773C; 13-00098-WASFUL and 13-00117-WASFUL issued by Northamptonshire County Council on 21 st October 2003; 4th October 2005; XXXX 2014* and XXXX 2014*. * At the time of writing this report, whilst NCC resolved to grant planning permission for the two applications at its Development Control Committee on 21 st July 2014, decision notices have not yet been issued. 7. A Transport Assessment (TA) has been submitted in support of both applications, which has taken into account the effects of both applications on the road DC&REG. BOARD 14/08/2014 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued network, to ensure a robust approach to assessing the proposed traffic generation implications as a whole. 8. The two development proposals will result in the loss of one building used for B8 purposes with a gross floor area of 1630sqm, the loss of workshop/storage units with a gross floor area of 1474sqm and the loss of a building with a floor area of 372sqm that will revert from B8 storage to agricultural use. In total, there will be a reduction in B8 use of 3476sqm as a result of the proposals. 9. A TRICS (Trip Rate Information Computer System) analysis has been undertaken of B8 Warehousing using the ‘self storage’, ‘employment/parcel distribution centres’ and ‘employment/warehousing (commercial)’ sub-categories. The daily trip generation from these uses is between 1.893 and 11.629 vehicles per 100sqm per day, depending on the sub category selected. The TA notes that the existing B8 uses consented on the site are not restricted to any one sub category and have an open B8 consent. This suggests that the existing B8 uses on the site that will be removed as part of the proposals could generate between 66 and 404 daily trips per day (two-way). 10. The automatic traffic counter (ATC) data included in Table 1 below summarises the recorded trip generation associated with the existing uses at the site. From the ATC data, the site currently generates on average 189 trips per weekday (two-way), which is less than the 240 movements permitted by the S106. Table 1: Total Site Trip Generation, 2013 DC&REG. BOARD 14/08/2014 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued Proposed Traffic Generation Potential 11. Table 2 below summarises the daily traffic movement potential generated by the proposed new REGF facility. Table 2: Renewable Energy Generation Facility Trip Generation 12. The total traffic generation potential associated with the proposed TAD would be 28 HGV movements per day (in and out). Allowing for two staff to enter and leave the site per day this will make the overall total number of vehicle movements per day to this part of the site 32. Table 3 below summarises the vehicle movements associated with the TAD proposal: Table 3: Thermal Aerobic Digester Trip Generation 13. Table 4 below summarises the resulting trip generation associated with the proposed development activities at the site. It shows that the development proposals could result in an increase in trip generation of up to 30 vehicles, or could result in a reduction in the number of potential trips generated by the site. DC&REG. BOARD 14/08/2014 2013/0282/03 & 2013/1857/03 – continued Table 4: Total Additional Trips Transport Impact 14. The site currently generates an average of 189 vehicles per weekday. The two proposed developments could result in up to an additional 30 vehicle trips per day on a worst case basis. If this did happen then the average number of vehicles generated could increase to up to 219 vehicles, which remains within the currently permitted limit of 240 vehicles per weekday. 15. However, given the observed average traffic volumes of 189 vehicles per day at the site access junction, and that the existing B8 uses are the main traffic generator at the site at present, it is likely that the existing B8 uses currently generate more than 66 vehicles per day. Therefore, the net additional trips generated by the proposals could be considerably less than 30 vehicles and there could be an overall reduction in trips generated by the site. Construction Period 16. The movements associated with the construction of the TAD will be limited as the land owner will build the extension to the building himself. In addition, the TAD system is currently already being stored in the building, so there will be no movements associated with importing the system to the building. In any event, the traffic movements associated with the construction of the TAD will be well below those allocated to the TAD building when it is operational (32 vmpd). It is likely that this facility will be constructed before the REGF construction work starts. 17. The REGF development will create approximately 100 jobs in the 18 month construction period. The specific amount of traffic will depend on which contractor the developer chooses, but the applicant states that it is common practice for construction workers to travel to work sites together as opposed to in single occupancy cars. In addition, the 100 construction workers will not all be on the site at the same time, as they will have separate trades, for example: laying the foundations, fitting the electricals, installing the machinery and fitting the doors etc.