DEVELOPMENT CONTROL BOARD 14 February 2019 Reference: 18/01176/FUL Officer: Sonia Bunn/Matthew Apperley Location: North Kent College Oakfield Lane Dartford Kent DA1 2JT Proposal: Demolition of existing buildings, conversion of Blocks K (Mansion House), R (The Lodge) and W (Rose Cottage) for residential use and construction of new buildings to provide a total of 156 residential dwellings (Use Class C3), and provision of associated infrastructure including access roads, car parking and open space and landscaping Applicant: Bellway Homes Ltd Agent: Savills/Mr B Thomas Parish / Ward: Un-Parished Area Of Dartford / Princes RECOMMENDATION: Approval subject to consultation with the Secretary of State and the completion of a S106 agreement. SITE DESCRIPTION (1) The application site comprises the western section of the North Kent College Dartford campus, having an area of approximately 4.3 hectares. Located to the north of Oakfield Lane, the site is bounded to the south-west by the A2 which is situated in cutting. Dartford Golf Club bounds the north-western edge of the application site. The site is located approximately 1.43 km to the south west of Dartford town centre, and lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt. The southern side of Oakfield Lane facing onto the application site are residential dwellings. To the south of the A2 is open heathland and the continuation of residential development along Oakfield Lane forming Wilmington. (2) The site is accessed from an existing vehicular access serving the car park and nursery in the south-west of the site. The site is occupied by a number of buildings, many of which have previously been used for teaching or college facilities but have been vacant for some time. I have set out the labels below given to them by the College: Block R (The Lodge); small two-storey building used as security office Former Nursery- small single storey building (the use has been relocated) Block K (Kingsfield House) - 18th Century building used by Madame Osterberg and now in a dilapidated condition Block KE: 4 storey extension to Kingsfield House: built as student accommodation early in the 20th century and unsuitable for teaching or office so is predominantly vacant - part of the ground floor is used as the refectory. Block P: 3 storey extension to Block KE provides some teaching accommodation but poor disabled access. Block L- two storey extension to Kingsfield House, now vacant Block C- single storey extension to Kingsfield House which still houses the refectory and teaching space but North Kent College advise is in a poor condition and has poor disabled access. Block D - eight storey former accommodation building but is now vacant. Block W (Rose Cottage) -small two storey cottage used for administrative functions Block G garages - used for storage purposes together with a hardstanding area used for open storage. The site also includes areas of hard standing used for car parking in its southern and northern corners. (3) The western part of the site is still open land comprising an unused cricket pitch with a mixture of grassland and wooded areas around its edges. There are a number of mature trees located throughout the application site, some of them in amongst and in close proximity to the building and others along the boundaries of the site. (4) To the east of the site is the remainder of the North Kent College (NKC) campus which contains a variety of educational and ancillary buildings which range in height from single storey buildings to large three and a half storey high buildings. These buildings are interspersed with landscaping and hard surfacing including roads and car parking, with the main car parks being located to the east of the college buildings. In the northern section of the campus site is a large hard surfaced area which used to accommodate temporary mobile units, which is the site of the proposed college building being considered under application reference 18/01351/FUL. The eastern section of the campus site contains some wooded areas and large playing fields, which provide a variety of sports pitches. (5) Public Right of Way DB27 runs along the southern, western and northern boundaries of the site. It runs from Oakfield Lane around the edge of the site and emerges on Maple Road. (6) An Area Tree Preservation Order was served on the North Kent College site in January 2018. (Tree Preservation No. 5 2017) PROPOSAL (7) The proposal is for the demolition of all the buildings on the site (with the exception of Kingsfield House, The Lodge and Rose Cottage) and the creation of 156 new homes through new build and conversion. The application is submitted as enabling development to fund new up-to-date accommodation on the remaining education campus. (The proposed new education building is also reported on this agenda under reference 18/01351/FUL). The proposal also includes the provision of open space and landscaping. The access to the site would remain in its existing location but will be improved through the provision of a pedestrian footway and will serve the residential site only (2 access further east will remain to serve the education campus as existing). An emergency vehicular access is to be provided further to the west along Oakfield Lane and this will provide an additional pedestrian route into the site. The application site will be separated from the education campus by way of a secure boundary, a 2.4m fence. (8) The first phase of the proposal would involve the demolition of a number of vacant and derelict buildings on the application site, including the removal of the eight storey high tower block (block D), the removal of the poor quality refectory and teaching building ) to the north of Kingsfield Mansion (block C), and the removal of the single storey nursery buildings in the south of the site (block L) and the single storey block of garages and various dilapidated single storey storage buildings in the north of the site (block G). The proposal would also involve the demolition of extensions to Kingsfield Mansion, including the vacant two storey extension to the south east of the original mansion house (block L) and the large 4 storey extension to the east of the original mansion house (s block KE) which the applicant advises is unsuitable to provide the required teaching space due to its layout and structure. (9) The proposed new dwellings comprise: - 65 new houses (comprising of 8 x 2 bed houses, 31 x 3 bed houses, 19 x 4 bed houses and 7 x 5 bed houses); - 56 new build 1 and 2 bed apartments spread across 7 x separate three-storey buildings in the south of the application site and a four-storey high apartment block located to the east of Kingsfield House (effectively replacing Block KE which the applicant advises is unsuitable for conversion; - 5 flats over garages (FOGs); - Conversion and repair of Kingsfield House to provided 28 x 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments. - the conversion of The Lodge in the south eastern section of the site into a 3- bedroom house - the conversion of Rose Cottage in the north of the site into a 3 bed house All of the new houses are proposed to be 2 -2.5 storeys in height and have pitched roof forms and gables. All the new houses, apartments and FOGs have been designed to meet Part M 4(2) building regulations standards for accessible and adaptable dwellings. (10) The proposed scheme has been designed around a central corridor of open green space that seeks to retain the parkland trees in this area that provides open vistas from Oakfield Lane in the south to the proposed houses in the northern part of the site. The open space provides public open space with a small area of play equipment and is located to retain the 'parkland' setting for Kingsfield House. The proposal also includes additional pockets of public open space and landscaping throughout the site. The tree belts along the western and northern boundary are retained and trees along Oakfield lane are to be replaced with new trees. The scheme would also provide each house with private amenity space and the new apartments with private balconies / terraces. (11) A 4m high timber fence will be located in the western part of the site, set back from the boundary of the site behind existing trees and will also have a 3m high ivy screen in front of it. This is to provide a barrier to noise from the A2. (12) The Public Right of Way routing will be unaffected by the development, but the palisade fencing along the site boundary which encloses the footpath will be removed and landscaped areas will run to its edge. (13) The application has been supported by detailed drawings and the following documents: - Planning Statement - Design and Access Statement - Energy Strategy - Flood Risk Assessment - Heritage Assessment - Historic Landscape Assessment - Geo-Environmental Assessment - Archaeological Desk Based Assessment - Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Assessment - Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Test Pitting Report - Written Scheme of Investigation for Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Test Pitting - Internal Daylight Report - Landscape and Visual Appraisal - Noise Assessment - Response to Noise Impact Queries Technical Note - Air Quality Assessment - Arboricultural Implications Report - Ecological Report - Transport Assessment - Offsite Mitigation Works Technical Note - Traffic Distribution Assessment Technical Note - Travel Plan - Utilities Statement - Statement of Community Engagement - Enabling Case Statement RELEVANT HISTORY (14) Kingsfield House is a Victorian mansion house built in 1859, in an Italianate-style, that was converted into the Bergman-Österberg Physical Training College by Martina Bergman- Österberg in 1895. Kingsfield House has been subject to several extensions over the years.